Nico in Hell
by InfinityMidnight
Summary: Nico di Angelo had not imagined himself as a soldier, and maybe he wasn't. Especially since he wasn't very patriotic, not even considering he was in the wrong country. Watch out Brecon Beacons, the Devil himself is coming to hell.
1. Chapter 1

Nico was only taking a stroll in the streets of London to find the MI6 headquarters for his father, something about taking a vacation of sorts, stop hanging about in the underworld, when he spotted a tall building that should not have been there. Like who makes a huge, tall steel bank in the middle of an area filled with big businesses, glass windows and there was another bank down the street that did not feature terrible art. Seriously, that place was filled with the weirdest pictures like that one of the creepy lady whose eyes follow you wherever you go. He stopped to look at the place, the moonlight highlighting his sharp angles and pale skin, his tousled black curly hair poking out from under a black beanie. He eyed it carefully and noticed something off. All the windows were blacked out.

Nico looked around, all the other building had some sort of light but this one had nothing. A tingly unease filled his stomach as he stepped closer. He gripped his ring, slipping it half way off his finger as his eyes scanned the area. He walked to the alley besides it and looked at the fire exit ladder. Too obvious.

He continued to round the corner when he saw a figure run from him, the light moonlight making it even easier to spot as the silver hair glinted at Nico. He stopped running and took a deep breath before he shadow-travelled in front of the other. The surprise look on the runner's face was hilarious, right before he collapsed from shock into Nico's body.

Nico grunted at the sudden weight on his shoulder and was about to drop the person when the whole area lit up. He could hear the rumble of cars as they parked at both ends of the ally. Nico cursed under his breath in Latin and dropped the body as someone said to put his hand up.

The armed policemen approached the boy while he looked at his feet. They made the mistake of lowering their guns after seeing it was a 14 year old boy. He walked closer letting a couple fake tears run down his face. He gave a couple of sniffles.

"He-he tried to- attack me" Nico stammered as he played the role of an innocent bystander. Nico almost smirked by how easy it was.

Too late to do anything, the leader was knocked out with a quick stab to the neck. The man went down and Nico took off around the corner where he knew there was an escape. He swung up to the rickety metal ladder that hung 6 feet above the cold cement ground, the rusty iron biting into his skin. The sound of bullets ricocheting on the wall grew faint as he slipped past the 3rd floor in no time. He paused to see the cars drive away and the unease came back but he pushed it aside.

'This is probably a monster's nest' Nico reasoned before breaking into the complex at the top because who wouldn't after thinking a place was teeming with monsters. He had to climb so much though, it wasn't really worth it in his eyes. He quickly disarmed the alarm, ripping a couple of wires while he was at it and picked the fire escape door at the top. Thank you Raphael Gray. Nico had a long talk with the ghost and learned all the trades of hacking and programming. (It also help that he could 'transfer' knowledge right into Nico's head. School needs this) He looked around the room to see two people watching him. He cursed once more, he should have check for life signals in the building first. He straighten up and looked them in the eye.

"Who are you?" the man demanded while the woman just stood sucking on a peppermint thoughtfully. Nico glanced over them.

Bulky firearms in their pocket, blades in their sleeves, that cold glint. He also caught the blinking of a red light in the corner that should not be visible a human eye. Probably that MI6 place father was talking about, he was always talking about this Alex Rider kid that was filling the underworld with people that deserves it. He had to expand the fields of punishments because of it. Nico tensed up.

The woman finally spoke. "If you don't answer us, I'm afraid we'll have to arrest you"

Mortals

Nico was on guard but he wasn't too worried. They couldn't possibly do anything worse than the wars and plus he could shadow travel. "Nico"

A surprise flickered across her face before it settled back on a mask.

"Di Angelo right? The newest recruit for the SAS. We didn't expect you to be here so fast" Nico also heard the attached 'and so young' He hid his amusement. Of course not, he had only gotten the mission two hours ago.

"Sit, sit. Peppermint?"

Nico shook his head politely. "I don't really like sweets"

The woman sat crossed legged, her hands folded in front of her. "Mr. Di Angelo. I am fully aware that your father sent you here to be a part of the SAS, however, no matter how powerful your father is, we cannot allow a - how ever young you are- in. The minimum age is 16, so tell me why I should even talk to you about this."

Nico was slightly pissed that she wasn't taking him serious because of his age which was quite hypocritical because he knew they enlisted another teens help a couple years ago. Or was it last? Time seemed to blend in to each other tracking down ghosts. He knew Alex Rider was 14 when he went into the training now two years later Nico was waiting in the same spot. He narrowed his eyes.

"I understand that I may not look like someone who could keep up with your countries training but believe me when I say that you'll be sorely surprised. Plus I'm only a bit younger than Mr. Rider when he came."

A slow grin grew on the woman's face. "Oh you'll do nicely. Here, report to this place in the morning. I don't care how you get there, just do."

Nico accepted the piece of paper and glanced at it, memorizing the paper just in case it got destroyed or something. You never know, monsters seems to love ripping clothes and flesh to shreds. He nodded and tucked it in his pocket. "I shall be there" and he jumped out the window. He saluted as he free fell the 30 floors that he had climbed earlier. He grinned as the woman's shocked face peered out of the window. He waited until there was no way she could see him and shadow travelled away.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

Nico was pissed, he walked the last distance to the gates and was immediately shot with a tranquilizer. He woke up as they tried to drag his body through the gate. Key word tried. He flipped over and pushed the last of the grogginess away before kicking the legs of one guy out and twisting around to grab the punch that was coming from behind. He flipped the person over his shoulder and heard an oomph from both guys. Nico looked at the two people who was dragging him. Newbies. He snorted and straighten his jacket before marching in, his eyes scanning behind the fringe of hair that covered the broken black glass.

5 different wards, a mess hall, multiple rooms and some courses that looked so easy he rather go climb the lava wall in camp half-blood. At least there he has a chance of not making it either by the red hot lava or grinding stones that clashed together. Nico was greeted by an incredibly fit sergeant. They both eyed each other and he sighed. "Not another fucking kid, wasn't it bad enough with cub?" Nico picked up on the murmuring. Nico reached out to shake the person's hand.

"It's not my job to ask questions, but if it was I would ask you why the bloody fuck are you here." A flicker crossed his face. ""There are five units operational here at the moment," the officer went on. "You'll join K Unit. We don't use names. I have no name. You have no name. If anyone asks you what you're doing, you tell them nothing. Some of the men may be hard on you. Some of them may resent you being here. That's too bad. You'll just have to live with it. And there's something else you need to know. I can make allowances for you. You're a boy, not a man. But if you complain, you'll be binned. If you cry, you'll be binned. If you can't keep up, you'll be binned. Between you and me, boy, this is a mistake and I want to bin you." The just like the other boy was left unsaid but Nico knew.

He felt like the sergeant had said this before. Nico nodded and was about to head off when he was stopped.

"You won't be the only one. The others are Wolf, Fox, Eagle, and Snake and one more is coming. You'll be-"

The sergeant stopped to actually look at the boy. He saw a young, handsome in a gothic way, boy who shouldn't even be able to wake up at 10 nonetheless 5. But then he saw the eyes, the pain that filled the dark abyss and the sadness that lay hidden beneath the cold. He almost shudder.

"You'll be devil, selections are after your tests because for some odd reason, you don't have a file. Have you even completed the 39 months? Whatever, be ready."

Nico kept a blank face but beneath he was stewing. How dare he, if it wasn't bad enough that he was constantly reminded at the camps, now this fucking place. He nodded once more and left before anything else could happen. As he left he could hear the sergeant ask for his file from whoever was in there now.

He approached the bunker that held the unit he was now a part of. He took a deep breath and rapped on the door twice. The person who opened the door was short and muscular with square shoulders and black, close-cropped hair. He had a handsome face, made slightly uneven by his nose, which had been broken at some time in the past. Nico could already tell this wasn't going to end well.

"What the actual fuck!?" The person stormed back in while leaving the door open. Nico frowned and shifted his weight on to the other foot debating on whether or not he should come in. It was quickly solved for him.

"Get the fuck in here!" The guy yelled. Nico walked in to see 3 more people. One was looking at him with a medical book in his hand, another was jumping on the bed while trying to escape the grip of the third person to get to Nico. His keen eyes could spot the dog tags. Snake, Eagle and Fox. Wait, Fox? Nico remember being debriefed that Fox was with the MI6, why was he here?

"Lets get this over with. I don't know why they keep sending the useless people here but I don't care. I will get you binned the moment you screw up."

Nico scoffed. Wolf's eyes narrowed before he marched up to the shorter male

"I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that."

Nico managed an amazing feat, he manage to not roll his eyes. He just brushed past and went to the very end where two empty bed stood. He pause before dumping his very light bag on the bed. The hyperactive Eagle manage to get free and was now bouncing over.

"Hello! Don't mind Wolfie, he's just being a butt. I'm Eagle, that's Snake and that's Foxy. Yours?"

Nico grimace as he was unpacking, he hid it though, that person was just too energetic. "Devil"

Silence

Nico looked up to see them all stare at him.

"No really! What's your code name?" Eagle asked, a wide grin still on his face.

"That is it." Nico snapped before throwing the now empty bag under his bed and kneeling down to retie his combat boots. He wasn't wearing the uniform of course, that ugly brown atrocity. Erg, makes him want to vomit.

"Why do you get that name? We all have animals" Eagle whined, Nico opened his mouth to answer but someone else did for him.

"Because sergeant wanted to name him that"

Everyone froze. The first to recover was Fox.

"Al-Cub!" Fox shouted before scrambling off his bed to greet the teen. Nico watched Wolf's reaction. He noticed the tension now in his shoulders. Nico figured something happen between them.

"You're new, I'm Cub, and you must be the devil Sergeant was talking about." Alex walked over and held out a hand. Nico grasped it and shook lightly. He could feel the bumps from where the skin healed over.

"Nice to meet you, Cub" Nico replied, nodding his head. Alex grinned and turned around only to be tackled by Eagle. Nico managed to snatch his ring off the bed before Alex landed on his bed. Nico watched in amusement as Alex was being greeted by his old teammates. Nico waited quietly, drawing his jacket closer to his body as he watched. They were like a big family, even Wolf joined in to tease Alex.

Nico started to slink away towards the restroom when he heard Alex talk.

"So what do we have next? Been itching to do something"

A snicker most likely from Eagle.

"We got the assault course in ten, get ready kid" the last bit was thrown at Nico.

He rolled his eyes. If only. Nico could feel the shadows trying to reach out for him as his anger grew. He took a deep breath and tried controlling the shadows to still.

"Scared?"

Oh, they mistaken his breathing for fear.

"Never"

Scoffs.

"Whatever, hurry up, I'm not getting binned because you have to take a piss."

Nico slipped past the door and into the bathroom. He quickly open the hot water and watched as the freezing water turn tepid at best. He growled under his breath before checking to see if the others were looking. They were still catching up with Alex. He quickly scribbled a note and sent it on its way with a burst of hellfire. He quickly rinsed his hands and went out. He leaned against the main door while the others for their shoes on.

Nico watched carefully as the other units did their business around him. Thankfully they haven't spotted him but he knew it would only be time. Everyone would want to watch the new person fail at their "hell" course. Nico almost snickered. Hell for the devil. Perfect match.

Nico marked down the hand to hand combat and shooting range as a place he might want to visit. Wolf sneered.

"Brat, your turn. Try not to make a fool of us"

Nico walked to the startup line, the rest of K Unit lined up to the left of him. The right was always to worst place to be. Everyone travels slightly to the right and being trapped behind the lines is not something Nico wanted to do.

He took off as the sergeant whistled. He quickly scaled the wall and took off towards the net. Alex was a couple meters behind him. Nico launched himself off the edge and waited until the last humanly second to grab on to the rope before it was too late to prevent a Nico pancake on the ground and the force being too much for his shoulder. He timed it perfectly. He got the farest without dislocating his shoulder. Nico scrambled down and dropped down just as the net moved again from Alex landing on it. Not as low though. Nico crawled through the mud, cheating just slightly by gripping the shadows instead of slipping around in the mud. What? They didn't need to know. He quickly got through the swampy area and was faced with the last stretch of land. He knew better than to rush across it. He looked at the ground to see almost invisible lumps of grass. Most likely low level explosives but he didn't want to take the risk of blowing off his legs and important bits. He casted his senses to the ground and under it, the pieces of metal glowing in his mind like the mines they were. He could feel that there were darts going fly above his head, like there always is.

He leaped over the first section of bombs and landed on a clear patch before using to same momentum to launch himself above the next one. He could hear a higher pitch whistle that was certainly not the wind rushing past his ears. He dropped and rolled as a wave of darts flew over his head and almost hitting Wolf and Alex who were at the start of the bomb land. Nico faced the land again and stopped. There were too many to jump, he'll have to go slow. He could see holes now, something that didn't register when he was casting. He was quite curious about what it was so he edged his way towards one, avoiding another mine that was armed and ready to blow.

He bent down to examine the hole, he had time, and the others were still trying to make their way to him. Nico nudge a stone to the edge and did a backflip away when a pillar of fire erupt. Nico couldn't help himself and started laughing, unknowns to him, everyone else shuddered as they watch the boy laugh at almost being roasted alive. Nico's eyes gleamed dangerously, he like this. Not every day that you face bombs, darts and fire (unless you were trying to get into Bunker 9 without Leo). He looked back to see the other two getting a bit too close for comfort so he naturally felt the urge to show off but he pushed it down. It was better to be underestimated than over.

He reached the end with time to spare and watched as Eagle leaped away from an explosion. He could feel the glares of the other soldiers as he stood there waiting for the others to finish. He fisted bump Alex when he finish then was glared at by Wolf. Fox didn't really care besides saying that he was cool and Eagle tried to hug Nico, only to have a knee to the stomach. Nico wrapped his arms around his jacket and gave a sorry smile.

"Sorry, I don't like to be touched."

Wolf glared at him. "And how do you expect to do team activities?"

Nico gave an equally fearful glare. "There is no need to touch any of you to finish it. It's better is you don't."

The rest of them looked at the boy. He avoided their glaze while his landed on the mess hall. "Ooo, what's for lunch?"

He bounced off to the mess hall and left the surprised group as he tried to not flicker. He hide in the bathroom as he took an ambrosia pill, Will had stuffed them into his bag to help with the fading and injuries that he may receive. He took a deep breath as the new energy flooded his system. He eyed the bottle once more but tucked it in his bag again and toss the worn out lump of fabric under the bed after tucking an extra in his pocket.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

He shadow-travelled into the mess hall and sat down after receiving his meal of goop, goop and more goop. Nico had worst but this was pretty bad too. He played with his food, twirling his fork in the pile of green lumps as K Unit entered. Eagle saw Nico first and almost tackled him once more but remember what Nico had said earlier. He sat as close to Nico as possible but couldn't count as touching. Nico edge just a bit to the right and eyed Eagle's grin slightly scared.

"So Devil, how old are you?"

"Classified"

Silence.

"Come on! Seriously? Don't be like Cub!" Eagle started bouncing and shaking the table where Fox finally join them with Alex. Nico faced Alex and mouth 'help me!' which got Alex to start laughing.

"Tell us!"

Nico took a sip of water and looked at him straight faced. "But then I'll have to kill you"

Snake spat his mouthful of water onto Wolf who then started glaring at all of them. Fox was choking on his bite of my mush. Alex full out laughed at the hurt look on Eagle's face. Nico looked down at his food and shifted the lump once more before laying down his fork and linking his fingers together.

"But I will tell you this, I am younger than Cub when he came in" Nico stood up and stretched. He turned around to leave before stopping like if he just remembered something then turned his head back. "Oh, and the Green Jackets are right outside the gate. Better watch out."

He exited with a creepy laugh and headed towards the shooting range. He had learned how to use a gun from Simo Häyhä in the underworld. Nico was pretty damn accurate he liked to say but sometimes, just sometimes he had to manipulate the shadows just a tiny bit to make sure the person on the other end died painlessly. He wasn't cruel.

He climbed up the rafter that held the Kevlar in place between each cubby for the snipers. He sat there watching the others shoot the cardboard cutouts. He could see perfectly fine as the first team got kidnapped near the forest for RTI and grinned wickedly. He dropped down onto the back on Eagle as he walked under and they both fell to the floor in pain.

"The hell!" Eagle yelled as he tried to free himself from Nico. "Devil, where the devil did you come from?"

Nico just groaned and rolled off. "Damn Eagle, you need to eat more, you're too boney. Ow"

Wolf scoffed before ordering the guns they were using.

"Like you're one to talk Devil! You're all bones!" Eagle exclaimed before getting up and offering a hand to Nico. Nico ignored it and got up, brushing the dust off his clothes and looking at the others. "What?" He raised an eyebrow and the others stopped looking at him.

"Okay squirt. This is a gun, do not point it anyone, keep the safety on and for the love of god listen to me!" Wolf shouted. Nico started and looked at him. He was too busy watching a group of new people get shoved in the infirmary by the Green Jackets. That was quick.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Nico sassed. Wolf narrowed his eyes and Snake step forward to prevent him from pummeling Nico. Wolf tossed the gun at Nico's turned back as he looked at people placing up round targets, not the human figures. Nico's hand shot up and caught the piece of metal before it could go over his shoulder too far.

"Thanks"

In the same move, he flicked the safety and empty the clip into the target. He tossed the gun back and went to pull the target in. When the quarry came back on the string, it was still waving slightly from the amount of force that just ripped through the cardboard. One hole. Slightly off center. Slightly bigger than the bullet he used. Nico was quite displeased with himself but he couldn't

"You missed 14 times! And the one you hit wasn't even on center." Wolf growled, grinning slightly at the chance to bin the boy. Nico growled his displeasure.

"I did not miss 14 times! Each one hit the mark!"

He could see the disbelief in the other's head. He rolled his eyes and snatched the rifle back and quickly loaded a clip. "I'll shoot slowly, yeah?"

He unloaded the clip once more into the target allowing a couple of seconds between. This time he hit directly in the middle and the others watched in morbid excitement as bullet after bullet slid into the hole made by the first. He could feel Hades' pride in his chest as the last bullet when on its way for a perfect shot. He spun around and took a bow before rudely shoving the rifle into Wolf's arms.

"Any problems?"

Alex broke out in a grin and wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders and just as quickly let go after he felt Nico stiffen. "I like you Devil!"

"Welcome to hell as they say," Nico said, looking him straighten in the eye.


	2. Chapter 2

**Last time:**

" **Any problems?"**

 **Alex broke out in a grin and wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders and just as quickly let go after he felt Nico stiffen. "I like you Devil!"**

" **Welcome to hell as they say," Nico said, looking him straighten in the eye.**

Nico was lying in bed listening to the other's breathing and snoring. He could feel the life forces of the Green Jackets approaching from the roof. Nico sat up and grabbed a couple of pills and stuck it in random spots, pockets, ring, shoe, and a little patch of latex on the inside of his mouth on the side of his cheek. He then proceeded to walk to the bathroom and started to wash his face when the first person came busting in. Nico spun around and kneed the person before yelling for the unit to wake up. He slammed his palm into the person's noses and flipped over to see the others struggling against the person holding them.

Nico, of course, ran over and punch the next person that fell down the hole in the roof.

"Seriously?!" Nico yelled. "Why the fuck did you break the roof!? Oh my fucking gods" Then after mumbling, he kicked the person sneaking up on him in the balls. "Touch me and you'll get hurt" He growled and the people behind him froze, everything went silent besides the guy whimpering on the ground. He turned around and brought his fist in his hand, a creepy smile on his face. "So who's next?"

"It's just a little boy!" Someone exclaimed and jumped at him only to have Fox's foot to his face. Nico shot a grateful look before shouting at Wolf to watch his back. He ducked under an arm and grab the wrist and twisted. He popped the joint out and flip the person over to see Fox go down with a rag over his mouth. Nico couldn't go rescue him because he was too busy trying to prevent the next person from darting him with sedatives.

Eagle was next. Alex soon went back to back with Wolf while Nico was trapped in the middle of the room with a lot of people. Three guys went under Alex's attacks and another one from Wolf while Nico was more distracted with avoiding the 7 slightly injured people trying to take him down and out for his blood.

"HE'S JUST A BOY! SHOOT HIM!" The person on the ground. Wolf fell down with a dart to the shoulder and Nico started to get nervous. He couldn't use his powers. He instead ducked and reached for his dagger in his boots but as his fingers brush the hilt, he had to roll away and kick out. Nico cursed slightly and tried again this time successful. He stood up and flipped the dagger, the people back off. Alex looked over.

"Got another?"

Nico slipped the other one out of his shoe and tossed his dagger at Alex and made the person trying to sneak up on him stop. Nico started pushing a bit of fear into the air and watched as the people paled. They got smarter and started to attack him together. Nico was overwhelmed trying to protect Alex's back and his own from darts. Alex was shot and Nico was left alone with a team that was half in pain and other half pissed. He felt something sharp in his neck and the next thing he knew, the room started spinning. He sank into oblivion.

 _Too late_

Nico awoke to the sound of a car rumbling and the bump bump of the road. His hands were cuffed to the others and his feet zipped tied. The others were tied similarly. Nico moved his cuffed hand towards his feet and tighten the bands until it was painful. Placing the now strained band on the metal links, he brought it down hard and the cheap plastic snapped. He rubbed the blood back into his feet before shuffling over to free the ones he could reach, aka Alex and Wolf. The rest of K-Unit was still under the drug when the doors opened and the now bandaged Green Jackets looked in.

"Holy fuck!" The one who opened the door cried as Nico's foot collided into his face. He clutched his nose as blood poured from between his fingers. "I thought we tranq'ed him!?"

Nico observed the chaotic scene before him. He was quite proud of his high metabolism. Well until he got hit with another dart and woke up in a cell with the others awake.

"Well look who decided to join us" wolf sneered. Nico didn't pay attention as he broke free of the new zip ties once again. "Took a bit, couldn't even fight off the tranqs could you?"

"Shut up" was Nico's short reply.

"Excuse me? Who gave you the ri-"

"Shut up!" Nico scooted over to the wall where he could see the carefully hidden camera was and slammed his handcuffed hands into the glass to shatter the reflective harden plastic. He pulled out the useless piece of twisted metal, mindful of the broken glass, and broke off a piece. Maneuvering the sharp object, he unlocked the handcuffs (pfft, he didn't have the shadow's help) and stood up to walk over to where the others were cuffed together. He was of course thrown into the room in a totally different corner and cuffed alone. Not that that would help.

"Could you not treat me like a 10 year old?" He asked patronizing. Wolf didn't answer as he rubbed the sores on his wrist. Soon everyone but Alex was freed. He was locked, tied and gagged. Nico made quick work of the gag and cuffs but couldn't get the knots untied.

"This is going to hurt." he warned before biting the sturdy rope and pulled. Half of it was severed while the remaining half was still in place. Alex winced as he felt Nico's sharp teeth accidently nipping at his skin. "One more time"

The ropes fell off and Alex stood to stretch.

"Ooo, they better watch out. Last time we got them to fall off a cliff."

Nico snorted and proceeded to curl up into his jacket, ready to fall asleep. The talking of the others turned to murmuring as Nico slipped into a half awake stage. His mind filtered the usual and the new under dangerous or can ignore which prompted him to wake when the door flew open. He allowed the shadows to blend his shape a bit when the people looked in.

"You first"

They dragged Snake out of the room and the television behind the bullet proofed glass flicker on. Nico watched with a strange detachment as they placed a wet bag over his head and still refused to say anything but his code name. Nico didn't care about this, he had worst when Jason tried to get him to confess to Percy. A couple of minutes later, a bruised and cut up Snake was kicked back into the cell, Eagle was next. Nico sweared that Eagle's singing was worse than Solace. Same thing happen again to Fox then Wolf who got the brunt of the attacks. Alex was just hilarious.

"What is your name?"

"Don't people start with hello?"

~Slice~

"Name"

"My name is way-out-of-your-league"

Flip of his hair

~Punch~

"Let me ask again w-"

"No"

"What?"

"You said 'let me ask again' so I refused"

~Bagged~

"What is your name?"

"Don't you get tired of hearing your voice all the time? Cuz I do.

~Cut~

Alex entered back into the cell with a grin on his face. The people behind him were pissed. The door was about to be closed when someone from the back yelled "Wait, there is one more, where is he?"

Nico figured it was time to allow him to be focused upon once more. The shadows stopped blurring his outline and they grabbed him.

He was pushed into a chair and strapped in. He looked around to see the rest of the people grinning.

"Oh wookie, a whittle boy thinks he's James Bond or something"

Nico had to assume that James Bond was a soldier or something because frankly, he hadn't gotten time to catch up on the bazillion and one movies and books since he was place in the Lotus Hotel.

"We won't go easy on you. What is your name?"

"Your worst nightmare" Nico said casually. He was enjoying himself, they couldn't do worse than what he had already experience. He got a cut on his cheek for his trouble. The stinging pain wasn't that bad. Hell, Mrs. O'Leary's licks hurt more than this.

"What is your name?"

Nico glared at them. "Are you deaf? I told you it was your-worst-nightmare!"

The bag was placed over his head. He took the shadows over his mouth to drag air from outside into his lungs and took the carbon dioxide out. He stopped pretending to flail like he was passing out from oxygen deprivation but when the bag came off, he gave a creepy smile and say "Boo"

To say they jumped was an understatement. If he wasn't so close to the other guys, he would have fell flat on the floor. Nico laughed at their expense, the hollow, evil laugh that usually sent shivers down people's spines but the guy was consumed with rage, it of course only lasted a few seconds anyways but it did what is was supposed to do. The guy's hands wrapped around Nico's throat and suddenly, he couldn't breathe.

" _Oh the little angel is running out of breath" Nico felt his lungs on fire, the air in the jar was too little. "No one's going to help you now"_

 _Nico struggled to reach his seeds, a sense of hopelessness replacing his anger._

 _Too late_

 _You're too late_

 _He won't help you_

 _Late_

 _La-_

 _Sleep_

He struggled against the bonds and thrashed as his mind started fading when he managed to break the rope on his right foot and connect his heel with the guy's knee bone. Unfortunately, he didn't break the bone. Nico gasped for a breath, his eyes wild with fear from the flashback.

The guy dropped to the ground and clutched at his knee. He then looked at the knife in his pocket and chuckled before standing up.

"You will regret this, I'll ask one more time. Name?"

Nico couldn't speak as his windpipe decided that, yeah, it'll stay crushed for a bit longer. Nico did manage, however, to work up some saliva and spit at the guy. Of course that made him even madder and Nico knew what was going to happen next. Anger makes people make mistakes and Nico was going to take full advantage of it, even if the price was more pain.

The guy stabbed Nico in the thigh, blood pouring down the black fabric onto the cement floor where it puddled into a crimson lake as the knife almost nicked a major artery. Silence besides the manic chuckling of the interrogator and the steady dripping of blood. Then Nico's chuckled darkly, phase 2 commenced.

"You asked for my name right?" He looked up from under his fridge, his dark eyes shining with an insanity that was a feature of Hades. "Name's Devil and you're about to go to my palace."

The guy promptly fainted at Nico's maniac grin and Nico returned back to normal. He felt content and allowed a smile to spread across his face. He then turned his head to the others who looked about ready to pee their pants. "So what's next?"

They fled.

Nico slumped down and yelled after them. "At least unlock my hands so I can leave?" silence.

"Never mind" Nico said under his breath. He reached up with his fingers and picked at the clasp until the whole interlocking pieces of glistening metal broke.

"Ufff" Nico groaned as the air was knocked out of his chest when he landed. He limped over to the spot where the person fainted and relieved him of the keys and his shirt, pain shooting up his leg and burned a fiery trail up his spine. Nico wrinkled his nose at the thought of using it as a bandage but he tore it up anyways and tied it to the bleeding wound in his leg. He also took the empty rifle as a crutch. He could have probably taken a pill but that would have been too suspicious.

He found the cell, leaving a trail of bright red liquid in his wake, and unlocked the door to see the others looking at him like he was a ghost.

"You- you just-"

"Glad to see you too." Nico grumbled as his headache grew along with the lightheadedness. _Too late._ "Now where's the ex-" He fainted from blood loss. _Too late little Angel._ Snake was the one to catch him before he received a concussion to add to his wounds. They knew the way out and they took it, running past the people hiding in the corners, past the green grass that was now flecked with blood and to the infirmary.

" _Wait up Bianca!" The little Nico yelled as his sister ran further away. She was giggling as she headed nearer to the cliff. "You're going to fall!"_

" _No I'm not you silly boy. What do you know?"_

 _Nico frowned, slowing down as his sister stopped at the edge. Her voice grew deeper._

" _What would you know? You killed remember? Or have you sunk so low in your petty crush with that horrid son of Poseidon you forgot?" She hissed._

 _Nico froze, he whimpered as a plane came crashing out of the sky and into Bianca. He could hear her manic laughter still._

" _I didn't kill you" He whimpered before curling up in a ball, his hands over his ears. "I didn't, I didn't!"_

" _I know you didn't" A soft voice broke his mumbling. He looked up with tear stained eyes to see Percy offering a hand. Nico hesitantly reached out only for Percy to take his hand away, laughing cruelly. "You stupid boy. You really think someone like me would care about trash like you? You piece of filth."_

 _Nico recoiled. He tighten in his ball. He knew it was true. Percy would never have noticed him. He knew it was a dream and tried to force himself to wake up even though he could feel the drug in his veins. Too late._

He woke up without a sound. He had to learn how to sleep and have nightmares without making noises because that was life or death in war. His heart rate, though, was a totally different matter. He winced as he shifted to sit up, his leg was finally acting up for the lack of adrenaline rushing through him. The morphine only took off the sharp edge.

Nico gently removed his IV from his arm, not wanting to get addicted to the potent drug before he licked at the patch of latex in his mouth. A corner peeled off and he was able to lick at the pill, slowly getting grains off and swallowing the Italian-ice pomegranate flavored food, he watched as the tiny cuts heal until it was barely noticeable. After he finished the pill most of them looked a couple of weeks old but he could still feel the gaping wound in his leg.

Now that the bleeding was taken care of, he could actually see the rest of his unit scattered in various stages of sleep around the room. Nico carefully pulled the white blanket back, wincing at the moment and the blood stain on the sheet, and inched his way out, careful to not disturb Eagle who was sitting next to the bed with his head on his folded arms. Nico made his way slowly to the door, leaning heavily on the door before deciding that, yeah, he needed crutches.

He limped his way to the nurse's station, no nurses or doctors present, and grabbed himself a pair before heading out the infirmary door to the outside. He sat on the steps as he watched the people train all the way on the other side of the clearing. He was suddenly hit with Deja vu.

" **NICO! What the actual fuck are you doing outside!?" Will yelled when he finally spotted Nico sitting on the porch. Nico looked back before focusing on Percy's and Jason's fight with the ton of bystanders looking for free entertainment.**

" **Enjoying the sun"**

 **Will became quiet and sat down next to him. "Thinking?"**

" **Yeah" Nico said quietly. They both sat there until the sun started setting.**

" **Come on, lets get you back in before you catch a cold. Hades knows we don't need a grumpy kitty on our hands."**

" **I'm not a cat!"**

" **Keep telling that to yourself, Neko."**

" **What does that even mean!?"**

Nico was shaken out of his thoughts as yells of 'where is he?', 'How the fuck should I know?', 'How can we lose a kid' run from the building behind him. He smiled before getting up and prepared to shadow travel. Well until a hand appeared on his shoulder. He flipped out, he spun and almost landed a punch into Alex's stomach but pulled back when he recognized the other boy.

"He's right here!" Alex yelled then sat down next to Nico.

"What are you doing?"

"Thinking"

Pause

"About what?"

Nico sat there for a second and Alex began to think he wasn't answering.

"Home"

Alex looked over to see the sadness on his face.

"Hey, when training's over, you can go back. Actually maybe next week or something. Sergeant knows it'll be good for his trainers not to be beat down for once."

Nico rested his head on his arms.

"I can't" Simple and to the point.

"Why not?"

"I'm not welcomed back"

The rest of K Unit was with them now.

"Why?"

Nico sighed and stood up. He started limping away, the crutches hurting his shoulder but he needed to get away. The others watched him as he left, not taking after him, much to Nico's gratitude. He liked them and all but with their curious nature, he was not ready to deal with the questions. When he reached the edge of the training field, most of the people started staring at the red bandage around his leg and the fact that he couldn't walk properly. Over by the assault course was Green Jacket. A morbid sense of happiness bubbled in Nico's chest as he swung his way over, making sure not to hit the ground with his foot.

They didn't notice him until it was too late to run.

"Uh-oh" One of the members said before backing off a bit. The others looked at what he saw and they too back off.

"Lovely day isn't it?" Nico said casually, leaning to one side and cocking his head. The dark strands of hair covering the pale skin. His eyes were sharp and dangerous at the moment. Sensing something big about to happen, the rest of the trainees made a wider circle around them. A very wide circle.

"Oh shit" The person who stabbed Nico said, he had just recovered from the bout of insanity and fear yesterday and did **not** want to do it again. It took three whole days locked up in a brightly lit room.

Nico smiled, all sharp teeth and feral grins. 'Father would be so proud' Nico thought offhandedly. He came a bit closer, and a bit more, and a bit more until he could smell the salt stuck to their skin.

"Boo" He whispered and they all scattered, screaming for their lives as Nico laughed. The sergeant wasn't pleased whatsoever.

"Devil! What the hell are you doing to my soldiers? Actually, what the fuck are you doing out of the infirmary?" He yelled while coming closer. Nico shot him a long suffering look before answering.

"Just trying to talk to them, sir!" Nico rasped, his throat was still extremely sore. He rather not talk but seeing as the sergeant was asking he had too. A flicker of worry flashed across the other's face but it disappeared with the next question.

Nico could see the twitch in his eyes.

"Why aren't you in the infirmary?"

"It's boring there, sir. I have ADHD and ADD"

He looked so close to whacking himself in the head with a book. A sigh escaped his lips. "To the shooting range then. If that wound keeps bleeding, I'm sending you straight back."

"Sir!"

Nico happily set off to the range, glad he didn't have to go back to that hell hole.

'Eh, the infirmary is more like hell than the training. Ironic' He thought.

At the range, he was handed a standard sniper rifle and a chair so he could stop putting pressure on his leg. The trainer then threw small pieces of brown cardboard for Nico to hit with the gun which was harder than usually because this was a sniper rifle, not a rifle. He could probably take off the stand to do better but he was quite positive if he rested the gun on his hip for aim, the sergeant would send him back.

Nico took a deep breath, slowing his heart rate and focusing on the piece of metal in his hand. The slightly off balance, the hum of excitement, the click of the barrel. His world soon narrowed only the way holding a sniper rifle did. Him, the gun and the target. Time after time the piece of paper in his scope flutter rapidly after the twitch of his finger. The silence behind the mufflers. The sharp scent of burning gunpowder. He loved it. Not as much as his sword though but it came close. He wished he was back in the underworld where at least he could practice with his lovely blade but nope, he shouldn't even have it.

Pretty soon he ran out of clips for his rifle and switched to a pistol and magazine. Soon that was out too and the trainer tapped him on the shoulder. He removed the headset and tuned out as the trainer sang praises. He did however notice his unit going to the mess hall. Nico checked the sun and saw it well past the wall line. Well he didn't actually see the sun, just the lack of one.

Grabbing the torture devices mortals called crutches, Nico limped off to join them to eat. He was hungry and didn't know the last time he ate. When he got in line for the food, he turned up his I'm-a-precious-growing-child look, complete with the slight fluttering of his lashes and tiny bite to his bottom lip and he received the best of the slop. Well it wasn't slop this time. More like mashed potatoes and a watery gravy with imitation meat. Eh, he had obtained a second scoop of mashed potatoes that he certainly was not going to eat. Maybe bribe one of his team mates or something.

He slid down near the end of the table, a bit further away from the team then a normal person would. He hung his head low and moved slowly to avoid drawing attention to himself. He took a bite of the hot food, they heated it up for him after hearing how he just from the infirmary (not that he corrected them, it was good to have hot food again), and didn't feel the urge to throw up like usual. He swallowed the mouthful, the now-mild heat soothing the fiery burn in his throat, with great pains, his face screwing up as his bruised throat wanted to not constrict. He glared at his food once again, running his fork around to make the potatoes more watery and easier to swallow. There was no way he would be able to eat the meat.

He looked up to see Eagle trying to steal Fox and Snake's food so he scooted over and leaned over to tap Eagle's arm. He then pointed to the "meat" on his place then raised an eyebrow.

"You want me to have your food?" Eagle guessed. Nico nodded and scrapped the extra large slice onto Eagle's plate. Cries of no far erupt around the room. Mostly from the other unit.

"Devil, you need to eat. You can't afford to not."

Nico rolled his eyes and gestured to his throat and scrunched up his face. He then returned to trying to force down food.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here?"

Nico froze. Oh crap. He turned around slowly to see J-Unit looking at him. They had just came in from a mission in Iraq.

"A little school boy who thinks he can be with the grownups. Why don't you go back to your daddy?"

Nico raised an eyebrow at them.

"What are you mute or something? Gonna go cry to your mommy that the big bad soldiers made you cry?"

Nico felt a flicker of anger that soon melted into indifference. He gave his food one last wistful look before placing his fork back down and looking the person in the eye. Blank. Completely and absolutely blank like a doll.

"Leave my family out of this" He growl, tasting blood at the back of his throat as the vibrations irritated his already inflamed throat.

The guy grinned. He knew he had gotten under the little teen's skin.

"What? Did they not want you? A big disgrace to your father?"

It hit a bit too close to home. Nico spun around and jumped in one motion, his fingers naturally going to his ring but he caught himself before it was too late. He knocked the person off their feet and raised a fist to punch him when there was a cough from behind them. Nico froze and twisted his head to see the sergeant standing there with his arms crossed.

"What are you doing Devil?"

Nico put on the most innocent face he knew, and it truly was the exemplification of an angel. "I was greeting J-Unit, sir"

He could see the sergeant trying not to grin. "No bodily injuries I hope?"

Nico almost snorted.

"Of course not sir." Then proceeded to give a rabbit punch right into the person below him's face. No marks, no redness, just instant blackout. "No bodily injuries were done"

He got off and pretended to dust off his black jeans and aviator jacket. The sergeant's face turned a bit red from trying not to ruin his tough person rep. "Devil, to my office now"

Ooo's were heard around the room Devil went off, snagging his plate of potatoes from Eagle before he could eat Nico's food. He grinned and took a bite as he followed the sergeant, his grin was a bit on the insane side, as he spotted J-Unit trying to revive their fallen member. K-Unit sat there with small smiled, even Wolf looked impressed. Alex gave him the thumbs up and then proceeded to smack Eagle for trying to take his food.

Nico arrived to the sergeant's office before the sergeant himself. He leaned casually against the door frame, in the flickering shadows as he watched the other's face. 'Surprise' he thought. He entered the door and was told to sit.

"Devil" the sergeant started.

"Yessir?" Nico replied, still the embodiment of perfect.

"Call me Dragon" the sergeant said. He looked at Nico for the longest time. "I don't know what to do with you"

Nico frowned but before he could object, Dragon continued to talk.

"You surpass all expectation, you follow orders… minimally but your social skills are… lacking" he blew a mouthful of air out and rested his elbows on the table. "Work on it okay Devil?"

Nico nodded and got up to leave but as he was almost out the door, Dragon called out. "Oh and go call your family, they should be proud to have you"

To whom it applied to: What I do with Nico will build later. Shush child, you'll see. Also this is centered around 3rd Person POV limited. So Alex won't be awesome until later when Nico starts bonding. No worries, it will all turn out okay


	3. Chapter 3

**Last Time:**

" **You surpass all expectation, you follow orders… minimally but your social skills are… lacking" he blew a mouthful of air out and rested his elbows on the table. "Work on it okay Devil?"**

 **Nico nodded and got up to leave but as he was almost out the door, Dragon called out. "Oh and go call your family, they should be proud to have you"**

Nico's back straightened and his face went blank again. He gave a terse nod and stalked out. The shadows flickering slightly as he walked through the camp. The other soldiers got out of his way quickly as they saw the storm building. He needed to blow off steam. He headed towards the unit's barracks and pretended to grab his sword while he was by his bed. He took a look at the knife that lied under his pillow but didn't pick it up.

'Fight the temptation, Nico' he thought. He walked out towards the weapons arena and hung in the shadows at two different units tried to disarm each other with knives. When one of them was pinned against the hard packed dirt, Nico walked forward and stepped out of the shadows. The instructor looked up from wrapping someone else's cut arm to see the boy leaning on his sword and smiling nicely.

"Can I have a try?"

He got a dubious look. "With a sword?"

Nico nodded and straighten up, yanking the tip of his blade out of the ground. The instructor picked up a long-dagger and tossed it to the unit leader of D-Unit.

"You'll be up against Spider"

"Just because you're a greenie, I won't go easy on you" Spider said sympathetically, already feeling a bit guilty about hurting the clearly not-of-age boy.

"I hope you won't" Nico amp'ed up the innocent little boy act making the other person squirm in displeasure, totally forgetting that Nico was the one who started the fight.

Nico watched as Spider walked carefully, his long legs testing the waters as he came closer only to slide back. Nico saw he favored his left leg so he purposely changed the direction of the pacing by feinting a strike to left shoulder and quickly took a step to the right. Spider was caught off balanced at the ease the boy handle the fight.

"Devil, huh?" Spider started. Nico knew this tactic, he used it so many times on monsters and even Percy. "Where are you fr-"

He shot forward, hoping to catch the young teen unaware but Nico was ready for him, sidestepping the blade, he brought his own blade up to clash noisily with inferior steel. Nico grinned inside, the familiar lull of the ringing brought him a peace of mind. It was relaxing. The singing of metal, the slither of light dancing on the floor, the faint smell of sodium in diaphoresis. Too relaxing.

He didn't feel how his before fake jerky movements turned to a dance. Step here, duck there, one move flowed into the next. His breathing matched the ringing of the black blade hitting the two silver daggers. He did notice how Spider's breath became labor under the fury of sharp taps to the shoulder, knees and wrists. Nico pulled back, his body fought against the logic, it wanted to crush him. He forced himself to act like he was finally running out of steam.

Spider saw his opportunity and struck, Nico allowed the blow to glance off his hip before countering with his own. "clumsy" stab. He decided it was finally time to take mercy on the other person. He waited carefully for an opening and threw himself at Spider's feet causing mass confusion and stumbling. Then he shot upwards and tackled the leader to the ground.

"Dead" Nico crowded happily, fake panting and trembling. Spider smiled underneath him and rolled out from under him.

"Wow, that was amazing Devil! You had me very surprised there. Throwing yourself at the person's feet? Gotta remember that when I go up against Bear tonight." Spider held out a muddy hand to Nico in a show of goodwill.

Nico raised an eyebrow and shook his sleeve instead, mindful not to touch the sticky mud. He bid his goodbyes and went off to search for his unit. He found them in a lecture about different groups of terrorists. He snuck his way in and sat down next to Snake who didn't notice the lithe teen pulling a chair out beside him as he was too occupied with talking to Alex and Fox.

Nico took Snake's pen and started twirling it around his slender fingers, the white letters melding into the black as he spun it faster and faster. He blamed Percy for this new habit. They finally noticed him when his fingers slipped and the pen clattered on the desk. Mouths fell open as the unit finally saw him. He pretended not to notice and fixed his attention on the instructor who was finishing up with SCORPIA and going on to a different group.

Chaos

Nico froze when the name flashed on the screen. His grip tightening on the pen before he forced himself to relax. He put on an indifferent mask but inside he was in turmoil.

'How can the mortals know about this? What happen to the mist?'

Thoughts flew around but was tamed when the instructor couldn't give them much information about this destructive group because they did not have that much in the first place.

"Chaos is a group in the Americas that soon travelled to Rome and Greece. They believed themselves as children of the Greek and roman gods and wanted to rid the world of the 'mortals'." On screen was a group of hellhounds and demigods that Nico recognized from the lines to the fields of punishment fighting what Nico could see as the backs of Jason and Piper. "They were taken down by a resistance group but no one really knows who they are or how they looked like except for this blurry picture."

Nico almost flipped the table when he saw it. It was a very blurry picture like someone was taking it right as they were racing past with a car. It was them next to Thalia's tree joking around after the war. He remembered because Leo had just came back with Calypso and Will finally let him out of the infirmary. He could see the orange and purple of their clothes, then the black of his a bit away from the group in the shadows.

" _You bastard!' Percy yelled before tackling Jason. They grappled on the ground as Percy tried to take back his blue cookie from Jason's grasp. The others were laughing at them, Annabeth rolling her eyes with Piper at their boyfriends' antics. Reyna was scooting closer to where Nico was sitting, resting his head on his lap as a pillow._

" _Hey" she said softly, her smile was content. Nico looked down at her._

" _Hey"_

" _You okay?"_

" _Why wouldn't I be?"_

 _Silence_

" _So who's that guy you keep hanging out with in the infirmary?" She reached up and poked his forehead. Nico started sputtering and turned red. "Ooo! Did little Di Angelo find a boy?"_

 _Nico pouted and leaned against the tree. Reyna narrowed her eyes and got up. "Time to go threaten someone!"_

 _"Reyna" Nico said exasperated._

 _"I'm not letting some low life hurt my little bro"_

 _A warm feeling bloomed in Nico's chest. "We aren't even dating!"_

 _"Who?" Hazel arrived with Frank and sat down._

 _"No one!"_

 _Hazel raised an eyebrow but was distracted with the rest of the group greeting her. Nico scooted away and watched with a small smile as everyone joked around. Leo wrapping an arm around Calypso, Hazel braiding Annabeth's hair while Piper punched Leo for making a dirty joke. Nico felt... happy. He felt at home at last._

He didn't notice the rest of the unit, he kept looking at the picture as the photo kept sharpening until he could see even his face in the shadows. The mist. That's why. He liked that photo but he didn't like the fact it might reveal the existence of the camps.

"Hey that one person looks kinda-" Alex trailed off as he squinted at the picture but somehow it never focused. It looked like it was shifting slightly making it hard to look at it for long.

"We predict that this group was responsible for the destruction of the Titans a couple years before Chaos, but we cannot be sure. However we do have one witness that saw how they fought like and here he comes"

Nico looked over and hid his surprise as a very familiar face appeared in the doorway. Will Treaty.

Nico hadn't seen him since picking up Alyss' soul at her own funeral. He grimace at the young man, Nico knew that Will could see through the mist at an extent. He had spotted the tail of Nico's jacket as he had shadow travelled away after bringing Alyss to Elysium.

Nico sunk in his seat as Treaty started talking. He tuned out as Will went on and on about how they didn't use guns but melee weapons and their wits. Nico wasn't too glad until he announced that they were all to take sword and dagger lessons.

Nico was slightly pleased as they tromped out to the arena where the rest of the units were. He spotted D-Unit, F-Unit, J-unit, and S-Unit standing in an awkward circle with the weapons to the side. He saw an assortment of daggers, dirks, short sword, long swords, double edge, single edge, two-handed, hand and a half, all sorts of blades were there but what wasn't was the archery portion. Nico thought logically, a gun was better than a bow for mortals. It was faster, smaller and easier to hide. (Unless it was a special one for demigods that can turn into something else.

Nico spotted his own sword next to the pile and immediately checked his chain belt, the black sword missing from its usual place. He looked up to see Will winking at him. Nico was completely blown away, was he really that out of it that even Will Treaty could pick pocket him? Even the Stoll brothers couldn't when he was half dead and delirious. He could see the dark gray handle glinting at him, the worn black leather looking a bit frayed.

'I need to replace that' He thought offhandedly as he concentrated to wrap the trusty stygian iron in mist. He didn't want it to accidently absorb some poor soldier's soul, not that it had happen before. He prided himself on training his abilities to avoid these mishaps.

Will made them pair up, Nico being left out because of the odd number. Spider being reluctant to fight anyone at the moment as he was still nursing his own cuts and bruises from his spar with Nico. He watched the others with a critical eye as they awkwardly handle the unfamiliar weapon. They tried holding a sword like a dagger, picking the longest one out of the bunch even though it would be unbalanced. He almost scoffed when Bear, the leader of J-Unit that ticked Nico off, nearly dislocated his wrist because of a poorly held sword and an accidental hit. He stood next to Will stiffly, he didn't know what to do. Will blew on a whistle, splitting the air with its sharp tone.

"Re-pair up! This time I'll be going around correcting those who need it. Spider, you're with Bear. Hawk, Panther. Wolf, Fox… bla bla bla… Devil you're with Cub"

Nico started out of his day dream at the sound of his code name. Alex flashed him a grin before jogging over, a hand and a half sword in his hand, the blade barely 3 feet long.

'At least he's smart enough to pick one that is right for his body' Nico thought ruefully.

"Lo Devil!"

"Hey" Nico said sharply getting into the ready stance, his weight on the balls of his feet, his body leaning slightly forward as the older teen came closer.

"Ready?" Alex asked. Nico nodded. They waited.

The sounds of clashing metal rang around them but neither moved, waiting the other too. Nico was known for his patience. He took it, pretended to be okay while letting it stew, waiting for the moment it would be the best. He was a master at the hidden arts. Alex, however, was only so patient. He waited alright but most of the time his impulsive thinking got in the way. Over the years however, Alex got a bit more control over it. Only a bit though so it wasn't a surprise that he snapped first.

Alex came flying over the distance between the two. Nico watched carefully but he could tell that Alex was quite skilled handling the blade. He sidestepped the thrust and countered with a backhand slice but was surprised when a dagger stopped the wicked dark edge from tagging Alex's side.

"Nice one!" Nico said before moving on to a complicated twist of his wrist to disarm the second weapon. From an outsider's view, that move looked easy and noobish but in reality, it took a lot of practice to pull off.

"Thanks" Alex said distracted as he avoided another slice to his face. He pushed back a bit, pressing against Nico's guard. He flashed a smirk before dropping. Nico jumped just in time to avoid getting his legs chopped off. Nico flipped over Alex's back, his free hand grabbing the back of the collar and pulling. Alex fell backwards, sprawling over the hard ground, the sparse brown grass tangling with his fair hair, the golden strands slightly glowing in the light. Nico extended a hand over the fallen spy. Alex grinned and clasped his hand in the smaller teen's, the cold flesh soothing to the beating sun.

"You're good. Where did you learn that wrist flippy thingy?"

Nico raised an eyebrow at how he described it.

"L.A"

"Oh you're from America? You don't have an accent" Alex bent down to retie his cut shoelace, tying the two broken pieces together.

"I travel a lot, learned to mimic different accents." Nico looked up at the clouds as he waited. He liked to make sure it wasn't going to rain. The sudden downpour would be terrible in this vegetation lacking environment, turning the well-worn path into a sink pit.

"I have too. What is your favorite place?" Alex stood up, quite pleased with how he salvaged his shoelaces.

"Italy"

Alex froze.

"That's nice" It was strained and Nico picked up on it also.

"Not many good memories there?"

"You could say that"

"Me neither but that's where my mother lived and I was born. I don't remember it though." Nico grimaced at the thought of losing his memory. Alex looked over at the other teen, noticing not for the first time how young Devil was.

"Devil-"

"Lets go, the others are waiting" Nico cut in, he didn't understand why he felt the need to tell Alex that.

"Devi-"

"Lets go"

And so the two of them went off to find the unit in the barracks, getting ready to retire and nursing their wounds. Nico leaned against the frame of the door while Alex walked in, a blank look on his face as he observed the sight with humor. Snake was sitting on Eagle's bed trying to wrap an ace bandage on Eagle's head while Eagle's hand was handcuffed to bed post. Wolf was tightening a pinkish wrap that was already around his arm while Fox sat reading, his arm covered in bruises that could only be there from a single edge sword.

"Wow, you guys look terrible." Alex teased. Wolf growled and snapped his teeth in Alex's direction.

"Shut up" Snake said as Eagle tried once again to escape only for the cuffs to jingle. "I don't see any on you. I'll look you over later. SIT STILL EAGLE!" The last part was directed to the other male that was squirming on the hard bed.

"No need, I didn't get hurt."

"How about you Devil?"

Nico gave a start, he wasn't ready to be added to the conversation.

"What do you think?"

Snake wiped his hand on a wet towel and motion him over, Nico headed over cautiously.

"I say yes so get your ass over here."

Alex shot Nico a pity glance and went to change out of his uniform.

"Shirt off."

Nico raised an eyebrow.

"How about no?"

"OOO! You're gonna get it Devil!" Eagle yelled while flopping back, his hand still above his head in the cold metal cuff.

"Now"

"No"

"Deeevil"

"Snaaake"

Nico ran towards the doorway, almost making it there, when Snake got off the bed only to find Fox blocking the door. He looked up to see the hole from RTI and gave them a salute.

"As much as I love to stay and have you poke at my body… see ya!' He jump, twisting around to allow his foot to catch the wall next to Fox's head and pushed off. He gained an extra half-length and grabbed onto the rim of the metal roof, the still warm tin was biting into his fingers. He pulled himself up and ran across the roof, his shoes barely making a sound on the dirty alloy.

He jumped off and took off to the Dragon's lair, aka the sergeant's office. He picked the lock slid in just as angry shouts of 'Devil' ran out over the camp. He leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief until a cough broke his musing.

'Oh crap' Nico thought as he straighten up and faced Dragon.

"Devil" Dragon stated. Nico looked with a carefully constructed mask.

"Sir"

"Why are you in my office?"

"I'm hiding from K-Unit, sir"

He looked at the young teen with a careful eye. He took in the mess of hair, the dirt and dust on the knees and hands, the blank look.

"Hide in there. They'll check here soon." He pointed to the adjoining room. Nico nodded his thanks and quietly slunked off, he door shutting without a sound. Dragon was surprise, usually that door creaked.

'More mysteries' Dragon rubbed his temple as he tried to focus back on the form in front of him. 'I'm getting too old for this."

He didn't get very far before there was a knock on the door. Eagle poked his head in.

"Sergeant?"

He sighed and threw down his pen. "What do you want?"

"Did Devil, by any chance, come in here?"

"Why the fuck would he be in here? Did you lose him?" Dragon growled, he was thirty seconds from either breaking down from laughter or breaking K Unit's bodies. It was a very thin line. Eagle gave a small meep and quickly retreated.

"You can come out now" He called while rubbing his temples once again. "Definitely too old" He mumbled.

Nico slowly exited his hiding place, his combat boots not making a sound on the scuffed wood, the surface worn from years of pacing.

"Thank you, sir"

"I told you to call me Dragon"

"Okay then, Dragon"

Dragon's eyes shot open as he heard the sarcasm. He hide a grin. "Just go, you have a language test tomorrow and should probably go to sleep. Have to fill your empty folder with something" He mumbled the last part as Nico was exiting the room. He limped off in search of a new hiding place. Preferably away from K-Unit but alas, luck was not on his side. Luck of the Devil. Yup he finally understood that saying.

When he got in the unit's barracks, the others were fuming and cursing him. He snuck around them, sticking to the shadows and made it to the very end of the place. He flopped down on his bed without a sound and went to bed, his breathing light and his mind ready to wake at any moment. He wanted to walk the dream scape to Butch so he could get a message to Will.

Subconsciously he could feel the others drifting off, their dreams standing out like beacons in the night sky. He turned away and let himself get pulled over the dark sea and to the city of New York.

"Hello"

Nico turned to see Butch sitting on a bed.

"Hello"

"You want to send a message to Will right?"

"Yeah"

"You got hurt?"

Nico grin sheepishly. "Yup"

"He's gonna have a fit."

"Counting on it"

"Good luck Nico" Butch said as he started to drift off, most likely waking up to tell Will before he forgot. "Take care of the leg"

"Will do"

Nico was yanked back over the sea and into someone else's dream.


	4. Chapter 4

**Last time:**

" **Good luck Nico" Butch said as he started to drift off, most likely waking up to tell Will before he forgot. "Take care of the leg"**

" **Will do"**

 **Nico was yanked back over the sea and into someone else's dream.**

 _He watched a plane crash, two people that looked similar to Alex laid on the ground in a bloody heap. A person shot them in the head just to make sure they were dead._

" _Mum, dad" Nico swore it sound like Alex_

 _He watched as a car swerved across several lanes and almost crash into a pole. A helicopter flew above him, a man hung from a ladder underneath. Bullets. He saw them rip out of the gun and scatter all over the car. The car slammed into a cement blocker._

" _Ian" the whisper rang out again_

 _He could see a car in the middle of nowhere, a fiery haired women and Alex. He looked over to see Alex with a helpless look on his face as he tried running towards the women but Nico could already tell that he won't be able to reach her before she got in the car._

" _JACK!" He screamed, no longer a whisper, as she was getting in the car. The women looked up with a startled expression and reached out to Alex before the whole thing blew up. Nico winced._

 _Alex slumped to the floor. Nico went over behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder._

" _She's still alive" Nico said. He couldn't feel her soul down in the underworld._

 _Alex's head shot up to look at Nico._

" _Devil?"_

 _Nico just removed his hand and started walking away._

" _Remember that. I'll help you find her if you let me." He looked back over his shoulder to see hope glimmer in Alex's eyes. He started walking around and almost missed the soft sound that was escaping Alex's mouth._

" _Thank you" He whispered._

 _Nico just gave a jerk of his head and disappeared, waking up._

Nico breathe out slowly, feinting to sleep some more before allowing himself to look at the sleeping teen on the bed beside him. He was struck with how much Alex looked like Will. Ah Will, he had wished luck with Jake and proceeded to flee to the underworld when he told Nico that he was in love with Jake. He had the worst of luck, cupid was probably laughing at him when he shot Nico with another arrow.

Nico didn't know why he offered to help Alex, well he had a pretty big clue but nonetheless, he got out of bed to make a very special call. Sneaking out of the barracks, grabbing his prism and flashlight, he made his way to the forest. He walked along the muddy path with the moonlight barely lighting the way. Tomorrow was a new moon, he could already see him walking down this same path in pitch black darkness. He looked up to see Zoe's constellation very well, there wasn't light pollution way out here in the middle of nowhere. Nico bowed his head in respect for the fallen huntress that he didn't know before setting up his prism to call someone that could help him.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano in Camp Jupiter" Nico said while throwing a diamond into the miss. He had a pretty big supply of them from Hazel when he was trying to teach her how to launch them as missiles. He could touch them without getting curse and now that Hazel was in better control over her ferrokinesis, plus the son of Neptune dousing her in the water of Tibet, the curse was lifted off of her and the precious gems she does bring up didn't bring misfortune to the owner.

The rainbow shifted its colors and showed him the office of Reyna.

"Reyna" He said, she jumped, almost spilling her bowl of jelly beans. Nico could tell Percy was there recently as for all the blue ones were gone.

"Di Angelo! Where the fuck are you?" She yelled when she saw him in the dark forest.

"Wales, I believe. Hey, I need to ask you a favor"

Reyna was all business after that.

"What?"

"I need you to go find this woman for me."

She raised her eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Look, I have a… friend that lost his whole family and she was the only one left. She "died" in a car explosion or something but I can't feel her ghost anywhere unlike his family."

Reyna bit the end of her pen before dragging a piece of paper closer.

"Name?"

"Jack"

"Last name?"

Nico paused. "I don't know."

"How am I suppose to find her then?"

"I can tell you know she looks like."

"Shoot for it, I'll try to find her."

Nico started describing the woman in Alex's dream, down to the last freckle on her nose.

"She might not look like that anymore, it was a pretty big explosion." Nico warned. Reyna nodded but she wasn't really listening to him, now preoccupied with the task at hand.

"I'll get back to you later."

"Thanks Reyna, you're the best."

"Take care okay? I got a meeting in 3"

"Okay, goodbye Reyna."

"Bye Nico"

Nico waved a hand through the rainbow and the image faded. He looked up to the sky to see the sky lightening a bit more. He figured he had time to shower before everyone else and put on his medicine. He shadow-travelled into the bathroom and grabbed a towel on the way in. He turned on the water, the ice cold liquid cascading down his body. He gave a sigh and groaned in pleasure as he rubbed the soap into his hair. He like cold showers, hot showers were too much like Tartarus for his comfort right now and the bills were cheaper.

He washed out the soap and turned off the water sadly. He reached for the bare threaded towel and dried off his body before ruffling his hair with it to get it to stop dripping so heavily. He snuck out and grabbed his bag where he stuck an outfit and his medicine in before going back in and locking his stall door. The only stall with a door nonetheless a working lock.

He rubbed the mixture on his scars and bruises. He watched it fade a bit more, getting one step closer to his pale skin color but he knew it would never completely disappear. He pulled on his clothes and got out. He settled on his bed and pulled out the gift given to him from Hazel before he had left. He read the familiar Greek words, the curves and lines quelling some of his homesickness as he fell into a story about a boy having his life turned around because of a dragon egg.

He didn't realize how long he was reading until he heard stirring from the other members. He looked over to see Alex getting up and throwing his pillow onto Fox who was still sleeping. Nico snicker quietly and returned back to his book. He had languages today and he was pretty sure of his ability to speak Greek, Latin and Italian. He doubt that they would test on that though so he needed to touch up on his other. Over the year since the war, he picked up on Chinese _(from the accidental trips there and the trips after because their tea was good. He still liked stuff)_ , Spanish _(because it was similar to Italian)_ , Russian _(he like Russia, it was cold and there were a lot of bad people who he had to bring back),_ German _(Father didn't want him too because he said it was too much like Hitler but Nico did anyways)_ and French _(Piper was teaching Hazel in the hades cabin and Nico was forced to join because Hazel wanted him to learn with her.)_

"What are you reading?" Eagle said after he woke up and changed. He was hanging over Nico's headboard and peering at the weird letters. Nico looked up to see the man and went back to reading.

"Is that Greek?" Cub said from toweling his hair. He had saw the cover where in big bold letters, spelt εραζον, Eragon.

"Yes"

"You speak it?"

"Mhmm" Nico wasn't really listening, he was at a very crucial point in the book, Eragon was about to go into Saphira's memories, and nothing was going to stop him from reading it. That is until Wolf stormed over.

"What the fuck are you doing!? We have breakfast. Get your sorry asses down there before you don't get any!" Wolf yelled before storming out. Man that guy needs a shot of oxcarbazepine or maybe a diazepam injection. Either or works, preferable the second so they don't have to deal with an awake Wolf.

Nico grinned at the thought and carefully place the book cover into the spot he was at to mark it before getting off the cot and stretching.

"Lets go" Snake said from the door. Nico shadow-travelled the short distance to the door when the rest had filed out. Ahh, Will would kill him if he knew but he doesn't.

Nico made his way to the mess hall, opening the book that was tuck safely under his arm as he walked. He kept reading as they marched along the well-trodden path to the food, if you could call it food. When he got there, the chefs had whipped up mush. Lovely.

Nico frowned at the food but he was quite glad that it wasn't going to be too painful swallowing, nectar could only do so much. While he was eating, he mused on how he had already did things that he shouldn't be allowed to without passing the selection yet. Oh wait, he hadn't even completed the evaluations either. He propped his book on the table and ate the food without tasting it. Selections were tomorrow, he had wasted 3 days in the infirmary… once again. Damn it, he hated those places. Too much white and people fussing over the dying or injured.

"Hey you!"

Nico looked back to see a guy walking up to him. He gave an almost bored look.

"Name's Panther, what is a little boy like you doing here with us men?"

Nico's eye twitched. "I'm not a little boy"

Laughter. K-Unit was watching this a bit fearful, remembering what happened with Bear.

"Sure you're not."

Another eye twitch.

"Why are you talking to me?" Nico allowed that 'I-am-better-than-you-peasant' tone to bleed into his words. The other person noticed.

"You think you're so high and mighty, beating that assault course and Bear."

"Not to mention RTI!" Someone piped from the back.

"No, he landed himself in the infirmary with that one. What did you do? Trip and hit the doorknob?" He sneered. Nico sighed and closed his book regretfully only to have it snatched.

"What is this?" Panther said as he flipped through the pages. "Do you not know how to write?"

Nico almost lost his temper right there. The idiot was touching his book, the one that Hazel had painstakingly handwritten in Greek, not Latin, Greek, for him.

"It's called Greek, now give it back"

He laughed. K-Unit was getting very anxious right now. They seen how Nico's temper never rose but they knew everyone had a limit. They didn't know where Nico's was.

"Panther" Spider called out cautiously. "Maybe you should give that back to him before someone got hurt." everyone but Panther could hear the underlying message of 'you, ya idiot'.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want the little baby to get back in the infirmary." He said in a childish voice. Rage bubbled under Nico's skin but he didn't show it. It grew even more when Panther threw the book to the ground, mud covering the cover. Fox hissed, this was not good.

Nico face was blank as he looked on, his eyes like a doll's, glassy and creepy. Panther feel quite pleased until a smile crept onto Nico's face. It started slowly, growing until a creepy chuckle rumble.

"I'll give you one chance, Gods know you don't deserve it. Pick it up" He spoke with all the authority of a king. Panther had half a mind to pick up the book but his pride got in the way.

"Or what?"

Nico stood up and took a step towards the soldier, the shadows thickening around the two as the older man stared down in fear to the teen.

"Hey, hey, no need for anything." Raven said from beside Spider. He quickly ran over and picked up the book. He gently rubbed the mud off the cover, surprised to find it slipping off quickly and not leaving a stain on the expensive leather. Nico cocked his head and nodded at Raven.

"Thank you but some people just need to be taught a lesson"

A blur of black crossed the distance between the two, the other didn't even have time to notice that Nico was gone until he felt a cold hand grip his wrist in a very painful manner. His arm was wrenched behind his back and he was shoved to the ground. Nico's black combat boot stepped on the sand camouflaged jacket as he leaned down to whisper into Panther's ear.

"I'm not a little boy, got it? Don't mess with me." He shoved the man away and marched over to take the book out of Raven's hand. His face lit up like a child, the murderous look no longer marring his face.

"Thank you for picking it up, you didn't have too."

Raven was taken back by the whole 180 change in Nico's personality but he still returned the smile.

"No worries, I'll just go back to my table, yeah?" He practically fled from the dark haired boy. Nico threw back his head and laughed before sitting back down again, shoving a spoon of mush in his mouth while trying to find his page again.

"ηλίθιος" ( _idiot_ ) Nico mumbled before settling down. Cub's eyebrow raised but Nico didn't pay any mind to it as he was back into the world of magic and mythical creatures.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

"Okay Devil. Phase 1 of selection. You have a 64 kilometer _(40 mile for all you Americans)_ trek. They others will be with you because it's a part of the refresher course. They join you at checkpoint 2 out of 4. Here, try lifting this" Dragon threw a 55 pound bag at him. Nico had half a mind to pretend he couldn't lift it but when he reached for it, it miss his hand and hit him in the chest.

"Ooofff"

Nico collapse on the ground in pain when the air was push out his lungs. The others rushed towards him but he waved it off as he rolled over clutching at the scar on his heart. He received a sword to the chest a little while ago, gave Will a heart attack before Apollo came down to heal the both of them. It was still quite sore.

"Are you okay Devil?" Snake asked worriedly.

"Just peachy" Nico hissed out while shoving the bag off his chest. Standing up with the help of his sword, he reached down and swung the bag onto his shoulder, the straps cutting into his shoulder the moment it settle its weight down.

'Nothing compared to the statue' Nico thought before turning to face the other candidates who were sneering at the boy who couldn't even carry his own pack. Nico gave a grin back to his worried unit. "I'll be fine, meet you there."

He took off and quickly covered ground, his rifle hanging from his pack whacked against his sheath as he ran. When he could feel when no one was looking at his so he shadow travelled a short distance and kept running when they were looking. It was still faster than the other. He knew his legs were shorter than the others so he had to make up for the distance. Uphill, downhill, it was all the same. He kept up with the other men quite well. He stayed hydrated on the one bottle water (and maybe that pill in his mouth) and reached the first checkpoint a lit bit before the last soldier. No need to waste his energy yet. He had enough endurance to last the last 30 miles speed walking from the harsh training he put himself through to disregard Will's concern about pushing himself too much.

He caught someone who fainted from overheat halfway to the second checkmark, the man slumping down to the ground. He caught up with the fallen person and bent down to feel for a pulse on his wrist while his other hand reaching for the other man's pocket blindly. Fingers fumbling along the hem of the emergency pocket, he found the flare and shot it up high into the air. The flame burned bright red before it turned green and arched downwards to hit the ground. Using some of his not-so precious water, he trickle the liquid down the other's throat along with a couple drops of unicorn draught to dilute it some more. Not lethal in small doses to mortals but leaving it at its concentrated state would be like injecting a huge amount of narcotics into the blood. If it reaches the heart, it would kill the person off.

The man jolted up and collided painfully with Nico's collarbone. Nico scrambled back while rubbing the bruise that was forming. The other looked around confused as to where he was.

When the sleek silver helicopter came into view, Nico caught sight of Bear sneering from the back seat while, what Nico guessed was their communication specialist, drove the hovering vehicle closer. The rest of the candidates looked back on the two, confused on who had fired the flare. Most likely the boy as for the fact that the other was holding Nico for support but making it look like Nico was holding onto him.

"Look at the brat. Done already?" Bear shouted over the beating of the blades. Nico glared back and shoved the fallen soldier to the medic of the group, Possum.

"Dehydration, heat stroke, pretty sure has a concussion from hitting my collarbone. Ow by the way" Nico directed the last part to the confused man leaning on Possum shoulder. He rubbed the bone a bit while rotating his shoulder. The responding groan was most likely an agreement to his pain.

"And how about you? Ready to leave?" Possum was the most polite to him but still a bit apprehensive that a little boy was training with the best in most of the eastern hemisphere. Nico scoffed.

"Like if, now if you excuse me, I got 25 miles left."

"You're American?"

"Yeah" He took off before he could hear the following question.

He wanted to get out of the sun, he didn't like the fact that Apollo was probably watching him make a fool of himself.

'Gods, can't you shine less bright Apollo. I'll crash your car on day into the ocean.' He thought as he jogged the dusty path. It was a nice change from the mud, more mud, and even more mud that Brecon's was having, if only it was less bright. Apollo must have heard Nico's grumbling because he quickly retreated behind a cloud. 'Thanks'

He looked around at the vast, vast endless hills and felt a sense of worthlessness.

'Am I seriously doing this? Oh my gods I need to get a life." He shook his head slightly and bent down to pick a blade of sparse grass. Bringing it to his nose, he sniffed it, the sharp scent of the dying plant cleared the smell of blood out of his head. He looked at the stain on his collar with distaste before deciding nothing could be done. As much as he love blood, it was a bitch to get out of clothing.

Checkpoint two and K-Unit (plus the other units) joined the recruits, spitting insults and pushing them faster.

"Is that blood?" Snake asked Nico when he caught sight of his heck. Nico's hand flew up to cover the stain even though it wasn't his.

"Yes…" Nico started edging away when he saw the look Snake was giving him… then he ran. "HELP ME!" Nico screamed as a joke as he ran away from the demonic medic. Funny because he was Devil not Snake. He ran circles around the unit and almost avoided being caught until he tripped on Fox's foot. He face planted on the ground as snickers flew around. Lifting his face out of the dirt he glared at Fox who was looking everywhere besides the glaring demigod. Nico spat out a mixture of dirt, saliva and rocks.

"Fuck you"

Cub fake gasp and clutched his ears. "LANGUAGE! Bloody children now a days, cursing. Like fuck them!"

Eagle started laughing from a combination of Nico looking like a kitten trying to be scary and Cub joking around.

"Now" Snake said before yanking Nico to his feet.

"Not mine" Nico said immediately. Snake scoffed.

"Yeah? What happen then? Someone rubbed their bloody face on your neck after falling?"

Nico was quite surprise. "Yea, how did you know?"

Snake's face was full of disbelief. "Then you wouldn't mind a physical. That reminds me, you haven't gotten one yet."

Nico bolted for it, over taking the lead in his effort to get away again. He quickly lost sight of them and slowed down to a jog while he kept a keen eye for the fair hair Scotty. He took a sip of water and frown at the taste. He had just refilled it at the checkpoint and the flavor was a bit bitter. He stood on the road waiting for the others to come with the bottle at his side. Something was wrong.. really wrong. As K-Unit and J-Unit came into view, Nico had realized that his bottle was spiked. He pressed a heel to his temple and his vision started spinning. He could kinda see his teammate's concerned faces.

"Water… bitter… drug-" He couldn't make complete sentences, he couldn't even finish his last word before the ground slipped from his feet. He held tight to the bottle though. It was his evidence. He vision slowly blacked out but before it completely disappeared, he saw a man standing behind Snake, who was shaking his body, grinning evilly. He couldn't feel the shaking but he could feel the rage burning in his mind at the random person.

But who?


	5. Chapter 5

_Nico was in a dream once more. He was in the jar again._

 _Again_

 _No_

 _He couldn't breath_

 _He didn't have his seeds_

 _He was going to die here_

 _He couldn't_

 _He could not_

 _People were relying on him to lead them to the doors_

 _In his mind he knew that that was wrong, they didn't need him. He didn't know why though. A tiny voice told him it was because he already did but the memories squashed the notation._

 _In and out_

 _There wasn't enough_

 _No_

" _Little angel, little angel. Look at this. Your friends won't ever find you._

 _Too late_

 _They will be too late_

 _He would be too late_

 _Hazel_

 _He couldn't_

 _He could not_

 _Too late_

 _No_

 _He refuse to die_

 _He fought the burning lungs_

 _The comforting blackness that called him to let go_

 _He wasn't too late_

 _He was on time_

 _He could hear the others_

 _He needed to help them_

 _He needed to go home_

 _Too late_

Beep. Beep. Beep

Nico almost groaned. Not again, he was in the infirmary once again and he was about ready to blow the place off the map.

"Devil?"

He groggily opened his eyes to the bright light only to squeeze them shut again.

"Meights, off. Mow." He slurred in pain. He heard a chuckle.

"People are really out to get you aren't they?" He heard Alex say as the ringing of metal filled the room. Only then he opened his eyes to the considerably darker room.

"Don't know why" Nico answered, his tone say he very well knew why.

"Hey stay down" Alex said as Nico made to leave the bed. Nico snorted.

"Says the person who jumped out of the window into a helicopter you made Fox drive to escape the hospital." He looked at Alex who looked really proud about that stunt.

"Fair point. You want to go back to the barracks?"

Nico wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his head on his arms with his eyes slightly open. He watched Alex settle down on the edge of the bed then he closed them fully, thinking.

"No. I want to…" He stopped. He didn't know what he wanted. He wasn't sure what to do to fill the hollow spot in his chest. He hadn't felt this way since Hazel, Percy and Will. Why was he feeling it now?

Alex looked over at the slightly younger boy that was on the bed. He looked too small against the white compared to the usual black he wore. Alex shrugged off his uniform jacket and draped it over the tiny form. He scooted over and slid next to Devil in the bed. "You want to go home?"

Nico was too confuse. "No.. yes, I don't know" A desperate edge creeped into his tone.

"You said you couldn't go home. What did you mean?"

Nico looked over at Alex, judging how much to tell him. "I'm not welcomed back"

Alex was silent. "Who said?"

"No one needed too. I could tell from their actions."

"Who?"

Nico stayed silent. Alex looked over at the troubled boy.

"You want to call them?" He had a pretty good guess at who Devil was talking about.

Nico looked over. "Yeah" He buried his head back in his arms. "But I can't"

Alex stayed quiet for a moment. "You can't or you won't?"

"Both"

Alex stood up. "Come on Devil. Lets go have some fun." He extended a hand to Nico and smiled, his head tilting as he looked at the teen. Nico felt something in his stomach as he took the offered hand.

"Yeah" He said softly.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

"DEVIL! Alex yelled as he ran. Nico flipped off the roof and landed lightly on the ground after finishing planting the traps on the roof. He gave Alex a thumbs up before dashing off to meet Alex in the arena. He leaned against the older teen as he caught his breath from the mad dash away from the bunkers.

"I can't wait to see their faces" Alex said laughing as he tried his best not to compare Nico who was curled up at his side to a cat. He threw a hissy fit earlier when Alex had commented on his agility when he was scaling the rafters.

"Well you don't have to wait long" Nico said as he stretched out on the dirt, the dust making his black outfit more of an auburn color. Just as he said it, screams of rage rang out across the camp. Nico looked up at the fair haired boy and put on an innocent face that border on bored and uncaring. He was a wonderful actor. He uncurled himself from Alex side and flopped about on the ground because why not. Alex watched him amused and saw the enraged units coming over the horizon.

"YOU!" Tiger yelled as his unit, D, followed. He was drenching wet and not happy as worms were falling out of his hair and jacket. Nico looked on with nothing showing but inside he was smug and was totally planning how to rub the fact that his prank worked into Alex's face. Well he was until Crane appeared with feathers stuck on him. How Alex got that many feathers to coat all the members of S-Unit, Nico would have no idea but he had an inkling that Alex had blackmailed Fox into diverting a shipment of live chickens from the kitchen before they got plucked.

They were quickly surrounded.

"What happened to you guys?" Alex asked while laughing, his hand clutching Nico's arm to prevent himself from falling over from how bad he was shaking.

"We know you two devils did this!" Crane fumed. Nico looked up.

"You're Devil?" Nico asked Alex. He said this with the straightest face. Alex's grip on Nico's arm weaken even more as he couldn't breath from laughter. Nico allowed himself a small smile.

"Not funny" Jackel said, picking worms out of his collar.

"I think Cub disagrees"

Everyone there looked at the boy on the ground who was dying, the silence was palpable.

"De~ _gasp~_ vil!" Alex exclaimed while trying to get some more oxygen into his lungs and blood. "THE EARLY BIRDS GET THE WORMS!" He yelled before rolling on the ground again. Nico looked at him, then the feather covered S-Unit then the worm covered D-Unit. He finally got what Alex had saw at the beginning. Some how there pranks had a matching theme. They didn't even talk about what they were going to do.

"Great minds think alike" Nico said smugly.

The murderous looks from the two units was more than amusing.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

Nico snuck out to the forest, in his hands were several gems, all glittery in the thin moonlight. He had miss the new moon.

 _Too late_

He pushed the voice down. He took a deep breath and toss a gem into the rainbow, requesting to see Hazel.

"Hazel" He said quietly, the girl spun around, her brown eyes wide in shock.

"NICO!" She screamed, tears ready to spring to her eyes.

"It's Devil here. Hey little sis" He said, a fond smile on his face.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS? YOU DON'T IM ME AND THEN I RECEIVE A CALL FROM WILL SAYING THAT YOU WERE HURT! I THOUGHT YOU DIED OF SOMETHING!" She yelled at him. Nico winced, he felt a bit guilty.

"Sorry I wa-"

"SORRY?! NICO DI ANGELO! YOU COULD HAVE JUST CALLED AND SAID HI, I'M NOT DEAD OR SOMETHING!" She screeched.

The pool of guilt grew deeper. "Sorry, I couldn't there was too many people. I'm training."

Hazel seemed to be pacified for the moment.

"Oh with who? Percy and Jason haven't seen you."

"I'm at a SAS base in Wales." Nico informed. Hazel's eyes narrowed.

"Mortals? Didn't think you would be the type to go into the army after what has happen."

Nico grimaced. "Father told me to take a break so he sent me here."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Only him."

They chatted for a bit more before Nico got an incoming IM from someone else.

"Sorry hazel, gotta cut the call, someone else is calling me."

"Okay, remember to call soon then!" She swiped the message as Reyna's face appeared in the mist.

"Hey Di Angelo, about that woman you asked me about, is she by any chance Jack Starbright?"

Nico felt a tug at his gut. It sounded pretty good.

"I think so."

Reyna looked down at her papers in her hand before clearing her throat. "Good news and bad, which do you want first?"

Nico took a breath. "Good news"

"She's alive"

"Bad?"

"She's with the Egyptians"

Nico took a deep breath and exhaled it.

"She's with a group that says that they are magicians led by Carter and Sadie Kane."

He smiled. He knew them.

"No need to do anything. Thanks Reyna. I'll go pick her up myself."

"Wait, Nico! They are not going to be happy to talk to us, Greek or roman."

Nico gave her a look filled with insanity. "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure we can…. talk things out."

He could tell Reyna was close to whacking her head on the desk.

"Don't do anything stupid Di Angelo"

"Who me?" He replied before swiping the mist. He cracked his fingers. Time to go pick someone up.

He shadow travelled away, the rest of his planned IM's forgotten. What he didn't know was when Reyna said that she was with the Egyptians, she meant they were in Egypt.

He stepped out of the cool shadows to the blaring sun and hissed. He could see the pyramid in the distance and the mansion on the Nile. When did they move? Oh wait, probably another safe house. He walked out toward the place, cursing Apollo for shining so bright. By the time he made it to the door, he was regretting offering Alex his help just because of the heat. He rather be in muddy Wales, at least it was cold. Or at least the sun could stop shining directly on him, then the heat would be welcomed.

He raised his hand to knock, the echoing sound was heard throughout the house. The door was thrown open, Sadie's tick off face appeared before it slid into horror.

"Hello Kane"

* * *

I know it's short but it's because I wanted to tell you that this will become a oneshot or something at the end. So it might be Jack being found by the Kanes or Nico getting Jack back or both.

Also someone told me it was like a different book written by moonshroom420 and let me just say after reading it, I can tell why some people might think it seem similar but I did not even hear about it. I actually got the idea from a Artemis Fowl/Alex Rider Crossover. Long story. So guess who's gonna show up next. Shout out to whoever gets it


	6. Chapter 6 - Oneshot 1

_Jack felt the burning as the car exploded, she felt numb as she watch the flames lick her skin. She felt alive when the fire burnt inside her lungs. She felt sorry as she knew somewhere Alex had to watch this. Now or later. She didn't want to die though._

 _She wanted to live for him. For her family. To show him that he is loved. To tell her family she loved them._

 _There was still too much to do._

 _So when she heard the whispering, she followed it. If she died then she died, nothing will change. But if she lived, she would have a chance to say goodbye._

 _So when she got motion of her body back, the flames dying around her, she crawled each painful pull towards the setting sun. It told her too. She felt the urge to go on no matter what happens. She couldn't face Alex if she didn't. It was an adult world with a little kid thrown in it. She kept crawling._

 _The sun had well gone down not, she was stuck in the middle of Egypt with no sense of direction. It didn't sound good for her but she was enjoying the coolness that was soothing the burns from the bomb and the sand. It helped with clearing her head. She kept crawling._

 _She crawled through the night, the horizon lighting up as she started to falter. She crawled so far but the pain had got to her head. She was imagining this girl yelling something a bit further ahead. She let out a sigh and wanted to give up._

' _No' she thought. 'I'll just take a break'_

 _She blacked out._

"CARTER!" Sadie yelled as she spotted a bloody lump crawling. She figured it was some monster that was after them after Ra had returned to the throne, well until she noticed it was a woman. She rushed over and started to roll the bloody mess over, the vivid red and black burns covering most of the body, the clothing was pretty burnt up also.

Carter arrived and almost vomited at the sight. After he got over his moment of sickness the twins bent down and picked up the unconscious person and rush off to the magical camels which they despised. There they rushed to the safe mansion and barged through the door to get the person to Jaz.

"INJURED COMING THROUGH! MAKE WAY!" Sadie screamed as they rushed, the newest recruits scrambling away in shock. The senior ones helped open the way to the infirmary and they gently placed her on an open bed. Jaz rushed over, her spells in hand and a concern look on her face.

"Get out" She told the trainees before starting the healing process.

 _Darkness. It was a peaceful kind of dark but she wanted out. Out in the light there were things she wanted. Alex. She had to get back to him. Knowing him, he's probably running himself over because of this. Stupid hero complex. She needed to get out so she struggled to break the fogginess. So close, she could see the darkness dispelling but not enough. So close but too far. She needed to show them all that she can fight also._

 _Wait for me, Alex_

Jaz slumped exhausted into a chair, the healing was going downhill for the last 3 days but for some odd reason, the woman started fighting the endless sleep that was pulling at her on the 4th day. Jaz figured now that the person was out of the immediate danger zone, she could let the trainees practice a bit. She needed to go to bed.

"Is she going to be okay?" Carter asked when he came in, a hand over his eyes just in case the patient was being treated without a curtain.

"She's decent." Sadie said as she stormed in. "Is she going to be okay? Did you find anything?"

Jaz gave a weary sigh, her eyelids flickering as she tried to get them to stay open to answer. Carter notice.

"Come on Sadie, let's come back tomorrow."

Sadie opened her mouth to argue but she saw how much Jaz was struggling to stay awake.

"Okay" She walked over and draped Jaz's arm over her shoulder before stumbling off to an empty be to place her on. The twins left just as Jack's eyes opened.

"Alex" She whispered before falling back under.

 **~ I am a line ~ shush ~ I am just a line ~**

There was a knocking that Sadie hated. It was consistent and not the doorbell.

"They make it for a reason" She hissed under her breath before walking over and throwing it open. She froze.

"Hello Kane"

Nico di fucking Angelo was at the door.

Sadie stepped aside at the little shooing motion that Nico was doing, her mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out.

"Yo-you-you"

"Yes?"

"YOU BLOODY IDIOT!"

Nico winced as the whole house started waking up because of her. The first to appear was Walt who rubbed his eyes while yawning. Once the images when to his brain, his mouth fell open also.

"Anubis? Wait, Nico?" Walt manage to get out.

"Yeah, I need something you have."

"No you don't! You don't just walk in and ask for something after you just disappeared after the war! We thought you were dead!" Sadie screeched while Carter tried to pacify her. Try was the key word,

"I have my reason, now I need to pick up Ms. Starbright. Either step out of my way and lead me to her or I'll blast my way through here."

So Carter led him to the infirmary where the healers were getting ready to give her surgery to help her skin return back to normal. The past month was preparation for this moment, making sure her skin was less inflamed and her immune system was up again.

"Jaz, Nico is here to pick up Jack."

Jaz looked up in annoyance and back down only to look back up.

"Him?"

They had a pretty bad history considering the reason Nico left in a hurry was to get away from her trying to make him stay in the ward.

"Yes me, now hand her over and I'll be going"

"No can do, she's about to go into surgery. I won't let you take her. Where were you the past month while she was in my care?'

"Training. She's not my friend, someone I know wants here. He… how do you say it… feels guilty for letting her 'die'. Also I can take her to a real hospital."

Jaz narrowed her eyes and looked at the uncaring demigod to see if he was lying. A couple seconds later, the red-haired woman and a slightly emo child was at a brightly lit hospital.

"Damn Egyptians, stubborn donkeys don't match the camels" Nico muttered before stepping off to sign Jack in.


	7. Chapter 7

Nico stepped out with the unconscious redhead, the woman was knocked out with a spell and taken to the nearest demigod hospital to finish healing. The Apollo kids were more than skilled to take care of a mortal. Plus it was only an hour away from the base in Wales.

He stretched after depositing the extra weight off his shoulder before getting back into bed, completely exhausted from the amount of jumps he had to do. He prayed to the gods that he could have at least 3 hours of sleep but they were not forgiving. He tried, he truly tried to ignore the yelling.

'This is the last time I help anyone' Nico thought bitterly when Wolf yelled at them to get up fifteen minutes late. 'Flip you'

He threw himself off the bed before he could go back to sleep, the sleepiness was trying to drag him under. That would be bad if he fell back to sleep. He reached up and grabbed his almost stone hard pillow to throw at Alex who was still sleeping peacefully.

"Wake the flip up Cub" Nico growled, he was a bit piss that Alex could stay in bed longer than him.

"Fuck you Devil" Alex said without much venom before also rolling out of bed. Nico decided to wait until it was almost nightfall where he could take Alex out of the camp to visit Jack. Curiously enough, he hasn't brought it up. Maybe he believed it only to be a dream? Nico thought that it most likely the reason. He needed to bring it up before he dumped the news on the unsuspecting teen.

"Hey Cub. You know, Christmas is coming up, you going to go home?"

Cub froze from pulling on his trousers. "No"

Nico looked up. "Why?"

Cub didn't answer. Nico looked at him closely before deciding to scrap his old plan. He accidently knocked his boot over by Alex's foot and bent into grab it. He whispered into his ear.

"I promised you I'll help you find her and I did. I don't back down on my promises. I'll take you to her tonight" Nico left the room as Alex just sat there processing the information. Nico didn't wait, he had other things to do like go try shoving down some gruel into his mouth. Well that was the plan until he actually sat down with the food, the smell was horrendous. Nico just pushed the food away from him and refused to eat it.

"Devil, you have to eat" Snake said, ever the mother hen. He was some how managing to swallow the gruel. Nico raised an eyebrow.

"Eat this poison? No thanks"

"Eat it" Wolf growled as Alex enter the hall in a daze. He sat down without even noticing what was on his plate after it was shoved into his hand. Nico was quite pleased with how the news turned out. He didn't expect this. Maybe a bit of yelling but not this silence.

"Cub, cub, CUB!" Eagle yelled at the teen. No reaction. Nico was extremely proud.

Nico could feel something was off though, something was really wrong. Extremely wrong. He couldn't brush off the feeling, something bad was going to happen and Nico didn't know what it was. His mind was still foggy from sleep deprivation.

'You can only go 3 days without sleep before hallucinating' A voice that sounded a lot like the reprimanding voice of Will spoke in his brain. He pushed it down as a dull buzzing filled his ears. The conversations around him faded as he looked around. His eye sight seemed to sharpen and unfocused. His demigod senses were trying to tell him something.

He gave the food one last look before he finally could pinpoint the feeling. Sniper.

Time seemed to slow down as his head snapped up.

His vision focus like it only did in the midst of battle

The glitter of the scope

The slight movement of the kick of the gun

The bullet flashing towards Alex

The whistling of the air as it sped towards the heart

The almost visible distortion of the air

Nico did the only thing he could

Tackle Alex out of the seat

He made sure to duck lower than the path of the bullet but he didn't expect it to ricochet and hit him in the side, a bit above his right hipbone. He blamed the slow speed his brain was working on for not calculating the ricochet like he usually would. Alex fell over with a tumble as Nico pushed him off the chair. He reached for the shadows at his hip like he was drawing a gun but instead shadow travelled a firearm into his hand. He shot one bullet and it entered the scope and into the person eye to his brain. Instant kill.

Minimum damage, pure skill as the shards of plastic buried itself in the eye along with the bullet.

Nico got up and brushed off his outfit from the bits of food and finally notice the stain that was growing on the black fabric.

"Oh, I got shot" He said it in the most uncaring way that Snake didn't react.

"OH I GOT SHOT!? WHO SAYS THAT!?" Snake yelled a moment afterward as Nico was wiping his hand on a rag. He took a deep breath and pushed his finger into the hole and dug the bullet out. He bit his tongue to not scream. He dropped the bullet on the table and wiped the blood. He made sure to not open the wound any further but it was kinda hard to when the bullet was a lot smaller than his fingers no matter how thin he was.

"I'm fine"

He could imagine the vein popping out of Snake's neck.

"Devil" Nico looked up to see Alex.

"You pushed me out of the way."

"Don't get use to it. Right not regretting it."

He hissed as he pressed a bit to hard as he was mopping up the blood.

"Wait I take it back, never will I ever jump in front of a bullet for you. That stings, damn it!"

He peered at it closely and gave his verdict that the bullet missed any vital veins and arteries.

"Sit" He was pushed into a chair. "Pants off now"

Nico glared at Snake. "I require at least 3 dates before you have a chance of getting into my pants."

Eagle snicker even at this critical time. Snake glared at him even more. "Not time to play around Devil! Pants off!"

Nico wormed himself out from under Snake's hand only to have Fox hold him down and Snake unbuckling his belt.

"Oi!" They ignored him. He started cursing them in all the languages he knew, the filthy words freezing the many language experts as he fought against the people that held him captive. They manage to get his belt off before he got free. Scrambling to his feet, putting his weight on his left foot more, he hid behind Alex who was watching them with a sense of humor.

"I'm not a prostitute you can do that to, do that later to the girl you're paying" He said. Alex did start laughing.

"Oh god Devil. Just let them check the wound. It's a bullet wound for fucks sake!"

"I'm fine!" Nico stressed before his leg gave out. "Okay maybe not fine."

He couldn't feel the pain until Snake touched it. Then it hurt like hell but when something wasn't touching it, it didn't hurt.

"Stop poking at it! Gods" Nico snapped. He yanked his leg from Snake's hand. "Don't you need gloves or something? What if I had HIV or AIDS?"

Snake snorted. "I doubt it. Stay still."

Someone brought a first aid kit and another went off to retrieve the dead body. Alex was talking to Nico to prevent him from noticing when Snake literally pour a bottle of antiseptic into the hole.

"SNAKE! A little warning next time!" Nico yelled, taking deep breaths to calm down his racing heart. It stung like hell and he wasn't enjoying being home. He almost whacked Fox when Snake inserted the needle into his leg, but Alex grabbed the arm before it could do any damage.

"You should warn him, we don't need anyone else in the infirmary." Alex scolded Snake. Nico was about ready to murder all fair haired people. First Jason, then Will and now Snake and Alex. Alex leaned down to whisper into Nico ear.

"We can't leave with you like this, you can tell me where it is and I'll sneak out."

"You'll never make it out and if you do, you won't be able to find the hospital. It's my… groups' personal clinic. I gotta go anyways."

Unbeknownst to him, Will was on his way to the clinic where the Apollo kids had informed their half brother that Nico had stopped by. He figured if that woman was important enough for him to stop by one of the places he most despise, he would probably come back to visit or take her out and Will wanted to be there. Nico deserved a scolding for getting hurt and running away after the war was over.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

Nico was painfully trying to walk, after a stab to his left leg and a shot to his hipbone, it was surprising he was still able to stand. He knew if it wasn't for the fact he was underage, from MI6 and the sergeant liked him, he should have been binned. 'He ate his words' Nico thought darkly, remembering the speech from earlier. He didn't need to give him another excuse to kick him but he had to get Alex out and to the hospital before Jack was put under surgery to fix her face and skin from the explosion.

He met with Alex at the edge of the forest after the sun had set. The moon was covered with clouds so it was easier to do what he planned. He grabbed Alex for "support" and started driving them through the forest but really shadow travelling them out and into the forest next the clinic that was hiding the place from mortals.

"Keep your eyes close, Cub" Nico warned as he passed the border. "It's a secret location and you can't see it."

He broke the cover of trees and headed towards the white building, hating every step but holding strong for Alex. Nico wanted to be anywhere but here. He had a really bad feeling. An extremely grim feeling. Like he was about to have his head torn off and his ears bled.

Okay maybe he was exaggerating a little bit but it was still a terrible feeling.

"Okay, she's in Room Orpheus 116. Here, I'll take you." They passed halls Asclepius, Aristaeus, and Troilus to get to the right hall. The many rooms filled with various demigods and mortals alike being treated by doctors and nurses. (If you asked Nico, he probably say they didn't have their degrees yet)

Alex was nervous when he slid open the door, the lightweight frame sliding noiselessly into the wall to save room. He entered the stark white room, the smell of antiseptics flood both of their sinuses. He almost dropped to his knees when he choked out a sob. The woman looked up from her book and promptly dropped it to place a hand over her mouth. Tears were welling up in both of their eyes.

"Alex" She whisper, not believing this was real.

Nico shuffled awkwardly in the open door as Alex cross the room and proceeded to hug the woman as hard as he could without hurting her. She returned it, a thin arm with a fluorescent medical band rested at the nape of his neck, the fingers grasping at the fine hair there. Her nails where cut short as burns and scars were covering the skin of her fingers.

"Jack" Alex whispered before getting off her shoulder to wipe his eyes.

"I'll just leave you too i-" Nico started only to be interrupted with a yell of idiot. He looked over to see Will running at him, his white lab coat was fluttering behind him as he ran the war path. Nico swallowed harshly and shut the door before backing up painfully. He feared for his life as Will approached him with a bloody scalpel in his hand.

"YOU IDIOT!" Will was standing in front of him now. Here it goes again.


	8. Chapter 8

Nico sat in the room next to Jack who was sleeping as Will wrapped a better bandage around his waist. He had treated the leg already and was now muttering under his breath about suicidal son of Hades. Nico was slowly falling asleep under the glow of the sun of Apollo, the shadows being banished as he kept sitting there.

"How's Jake?" Nico asked, slurring slightly as he started nodding off. Will looked up and watched with a fond smile at the young teen that was drifting off.

"We're good, he asked me out first, something about a pushy emo kid saying he should man up and ask. You know anything about it?"

"Do-t kn~w wha chu talking 'bout" Nico said before truly falling asleep. Will chuckled and shook his head. He wasn't sad that he let Nico go, he had Jake of course but some days he just wish he could show him the world and all the good instead of the bad luck he has been getting. Will shut the door and set a timer to wake Nico up. He figured that Nico might need to get back before sunrise no matter how pissy he would be in the morning. Will left with the orders to bring Jack into surgery tomorrow and send her on her way to a safe house nearer to Wales.

Alex watched Jack sleep, her scarred face was pinkish and white, a mixture of open wounds and poorly healed ones. Her hair was burnt but didn't look too bad considering the ends were cut off and the hair grew out healthy for a bit. He wished that he had know she was still alive all this time so he could have set off to find her but he knew how smart it was to keep this from MI6. They couldn't use her against him anymore. He felt happy like a great weight was lifted off his chest. Most likely the guilt of killing off Jack. He had to thank Devil for this... but not now. Too tired.

He fell asleep to the beeping of Jack's heart monitor that was reassuring him this wasn't a dream and she truly was alive.

Morning came quickly to the both of them, the son of Apollo waking Alex up before Nico only so he could hide behind the soldier as the grumpy italian cursed him in italian.

"The sun isn't even up!" Nico complain as he snuggled back into the nice, soft bed.

"Don't you have to get back to where ever you came from?"

Nico shot up. "Oh gods! CUB!"

Nico scrambled out of bed, slipped on a bed gown that was on the floor where Alex had changed and tossed it and almost slammed into the wall trying to get to the door. He paused and slowly turned around to see Alex snickering quietly next to Will who had a stupid grin on his face.

"He's right here. Now off you go! I don't want to see either of you in an infirmary or hospital unless it's visiting me or Jack. BYE!"

He shove them into the hallway so he could begin sterilizing the room. Nico sighed and started walking down the hall past all the moaning of pain and out the door into the crisp air. He turned to see Alex heading down the pathway also, when he arrived next to Nico, he got a blindfold covering his eyes.

"Relax. I still can't let you see the place. Miss Starbright will be moved to a safe house closer to the SAS base. After she is fully healed from her surgery, I believe she can decide where she is staying." Nico explained while directing Alex out of the bright fluorescent light to the darker clearing that the helicopters usually lands in.

Nico made sure the blindfold was firmly on before jumping them both into the forest where they left. He gently lead Alex through the foliage and when the trees started thinning, he took of the blindfold.

"What?" Alex started to say but decided against it. They walked back in silence until they were right in front of the barracks then Alex turned and placed his hands on Nico's shoulders. He froze and his whole body went stiff.

"Let me go Cub" Nico stated, the dark eyes boring into Alex's soul. He quickly removed his hands and coughed to disperse the tense air.

"I wanted to thank you for finding her and taking her to a private hospital."

"You're welcome."

"Thank you" He repeated. "I kept believing that I killed her. She should have never had to feel that.'

Nico didn't know how to respond as he wasn't good with people in general. Instead he opted for opening the door to see their frantic teammates scrambling around. When they heard the click of the door opening, everyone froze. The first one to react was Eagle who ran towards them screaming their code names. Nico stepped side quickly to avoid the barreling soldier. Alex got hit straight in the chest with a hug. Nico was quite glad he stepped aside at the sound of the hollow thump and the umpff that came from the pile on the ground.

"Where the fuck do you think you are doing?" Wolf said calmly.

Nico had half a mind to be an idiot which he proceeded to do. "Standing here"

He was purposely driving Wolf up the wall but he didn't care, well he kinda did. He was doing it on purpose after all. Nico limped into the room, the shadow travelling and hiking through the woods was not doing wonders for his leg. It was throbbing and even Will medicine that he put on it at like 2 was wearing off. He didn't hiss when he accidentally stubbed his toe on the bed frame.

He pulled off his pants and threw it somewhere else, Will had worked some laundry magic and somehow removed the blood stain in the black cloth but until he could get his hands on a needle, he couldn't fix the holes. He rummaged through his pitifully small wardrobe under his bed to find something acceptable. The only thing he could find was a shirt the said Living with the King of the Dead. He quickly slipped the gray shirt over his head and pulled on a pair of regular jeans. He didn't want to go through the trouble of worming his way into it with a bandages all around his hip and upper leg.

Wolf glared at him before storming out of the barracks and down to the mess hall, yelling back at them that the sergeant wanted them two hours early. Nico was very happy about how he drove Wolf up the wall, extremely happy. So happy that while walking to the mess hall, people turned from the weird feeling of happiness but they couldn't find who was happy as for the fact Nico had the best poker face. (Not that it was used properly when he was playing poker with the others)

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

" _Devil come play with us!" Eagle yelled as he flopped dramatically after losing yet again in poker. Nico looked up and saw their faces, his own remaining impassive to the childish man. He carefully placed the front cover into the page he was on before sliding in with the others._

" _What are you playing?" Nico asked as the game was started over, his own hand was a A,6,7,Q,Q._

" _Poker, you know how to play?" Snake asked as he moved a couple cards in his hand._

" _A little bit" Nico said as he looked at his cards, a little bit his butt. He had already snagged a king of hearts from the deck. He also caught sight of Eagle's cheating which was absolutely appalling. He could easily switch out his 6 for another ace because Eagle was that bad with his own cards, he was too busy trying to snag something else. So naturally Nico did. He let a fake grimace flicker on and off like he was trying not to but it slipped before sliding the minimum amount into the bet pool as a blocker bet. Not that it stopped the others. Alex was casting a wary look at him, guarding his card viciously._

 _Nico watched as Snake was bluffing and slid in a pile._

" _Call" Wolf said before matching it._

" _Call" Fox._

" _Call" Eagle, he raised the bet._

" _Fold" Alex slid his cards down but Nico caught that look in his eyes. He was only minding his time._

 _They flipped the cards over._

 _Wolf had a flush, Fox had a three of a kind, Eagle had two pairs, and Nico had two pairs also. He was playing it safe._

" _Better luck next time" Snake said, a pity look in his eyes. Nico just nodded dejectedly but inside he was cheering. Also he was counting the cards, watching the slight flicker as Wolf dealt the cards to see what each card was. He snagged a queen of hearts as Wolf's hand was dealing it to him. He was that good. They played a couple more rounds, Nico not winning spectacular or losing too much. He even manage to get Alex to team with him when Eagle and Fox was arguing who won the round. Nico decided he was ready to finish this up. So he got one last hand, ready to show that he was cheating._

 _A,2,J,3,4. He just needed to trade out his 2 for a 10. He looked at Alex and tapped his chips on the bed three times before sliding some in. Alex saw and kept his face passive as he slid a ten of heart over and Nico a two._

 _Nico was quite happy with his hand and so was Alex apparently. Nico switched out the cards he was hiding making it a royal flush. A,K,Q,J,10 all hearts._

" _All in" Nico said, making his face tight with boredom. Eagle took the bait._

" _I'm all in also."_

" _Check" Alex knew better. He help Nico cheat after all._

" _Call" Wolf said, eying Nico's card suspiciously._

" _Call" Snake_

" _Fold" Fox._

 _Nico finally let emotions show on his face as he grinned with glee. He flipped his cards over. The other's eyes bulged open as they took in the perfect hand._

" _YOU CHEATED!" Eagle yelled._

 _Nico just gave him a patronizing grin._

" _I'll take this." He swept all the of the chips into Alex's slot. "I'm tired"_

 _He got up to go take a shower. Alex was looking at the cards as he left, a small smile on his face._

* * *

So Um... sorry? Okay, I know some of you are mad for me disappearing for who knows how long but I do have excuses. You guys probably don't want to hear it but unfortunately my summers are more busy than the school year. Instead of school being from 9:15 to 3:35, it's 8 till 8. Yeah, sucks. So I hope you guys enjoyed it and how about some reviews. More Alico to come, right now is some bromance.

Also to Joey Black - I am a medical student. That is as accurate as I am willing to write. Could you get an account btw? It's easier and keeps me from adding to the word count


	9. Chapter 9

Nico walked into the mess hall extremely early. More than the two hours. The sergeant was waiting for him. He sent the others to go bring in supplies from the truck in the back to the storage shed.

"You're on kitchen duty until that leg heals." He said. Nico was okay with that statement. It wasn't like he had to wash the dishes with lava or something and maybe they'll have something edible today. He figure he'll kick out the kitchen workers who deserve a break after everything so he did. He made them sit and rest while he raided the cupboards and supplies.

He figured eggs with seasoned ground beef and veggies. He dragged a chair over to the stove area and sat down as he chopped the mushrooms, onions, bell peppers and tomatoes. He even let the persistent kitchen workers help him cut the stuff, but he didn't let them cook it. Gods know that they might turn it into gray mush, kinda like in Log Horizon but not with sparkly purple goop.

In a cast iron pan, he placed the beef into it and threw a bunch of random spices in without reading the label. Trying to read it gave him a headache anyways. He threw in some cheese and all the chopped stuff into a different big pan and then started breaking eggs in a bowl as he sauteed the greens until the whole mess hall filled with the smell. He dumped almost a dozen and a half eggs into the pan and stirred.

"Can someone get me the ground beef over there?" Nico asked, his leg was throbbing and he didn't feel like getting up. A woman walked over and slid the pan closer. He mixed everything together before instructing them to pour it into a silver heater that they usually used to serve food. He made two more batches before going off to make bread.

He was italian after all.

By the time the units came in, the hall was filled with the smell of garlic, eggs and meat.

"Wow" Badger, the comms specialist of F-Unit said. He sniffed the air as Nico wipe his hands on a towel after pulling out the last tray of garlic bread. He untied the apron and took off the hair net before sneaking out of the kitchen behind Owl of F-Unit.

"Probably taste like shit." Owl said, always the pessimist unless it was blowing stuff up.

"Don't care! It smells amazing" Coyote said as he set his sniper rifle down from practice. He got in line as Nico leaned against the wall in the shadows. He watched as other units came in and expressed their disbelief. He took great humor as he watched them eat (not in a creepy stalkerish way). Shark from S-Unit, the demolition specialist, fainted on the ground after tasting the bread.

K-Unit entered last, a bit disgruntled about having to do all of that work and only could look forward to a gray mushy breakfast, well until they say everyone quiet and stuffing their face.

"What is this?" Wolf said.

"I don't know, it surely doesn't look like food." Alex replied sarcastically.

Nico snickered and walked over.

"Hey Devil, where were you?" Fox asked curiously as they grabbed some food, Nico's plate having the least amount.

Nico shrugged. "Had my wound checked out."

He didn't want to tell them he was cooking, not that they would tease him but more for the fact he might be forced to cook even after he fully healed just because they want real food. Snake looked at him with a medical eye.

"Speaking of which…" Snake said, drumming his fingers on the table in a menacing way. "You still haven't let me give you a physical"

Nico snorted into his eggs, a piece of tomato going down the wrong pipe. Alex started whacking his back as he choked.

"You didn't take advantage of me while I was out?" Nico asked lewdly. Snake frowned as Eagle snickered. "Glad to know you aren't that much of a pedo."

Snake huffed and went back to stuffing his mouth. Fox decided it was high time to change the topic.

"Sooo… who do you think cooked this?

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

Jack bolted upright in her hospital bed, the surgery had gone right. So why was she scared. Her dream, that's what it was.

 _A red haired girl sat at a table with a group of blond haired people, food being pushed around as they joked. She was laughing and punching the boy next to her. Will Solace. Jack recognized the doctor that flew in. Granted she was a bit apprehensive of having a child treat her but she saw the documents of his graduation from Harvard. (The Stolls made it for Will after a prank gone wrong) The girl's jeans were covered in doodles and paint, her large orange shirt was colored with purple sharpie in designs that looked like different buildings. The most prominent was the empire state building and what looked like a greek mausoleum._

 _Suddenly the red haired girl whipped around and stared straight at Jack. She stumbled back at the girl's piercing look. Then the girl grin and waved before looking back at the group of people._

 _Jack felt a sense of familiarity with the girl. She seem so… like her. Suddenly a name popped into her mind. Rachel Elizabeth Dare._

 _Dare_

 _She remembered Dare from a childhood memory. She remembered being a teenager and getting dragged out of a reunion by the 2 year old girl in claims of monsters with bright red eyes and sharp teeth. She didn't question it as there was a tiny dog looking at them with a curious look. Imagination, she always put it down as, the girl was always creative. That was the last she saw of her since her family broke up relations with the Dares because of the girl's father's business. She promptly forgot the girl._

 _So why was she dreaming of the girl now._

"Miss Starbright?" A voice interrupted her thinking. She looked over to see Will Solace standing with a tray of medicine and food.

"Sorry, I was thinking." Jack said a bit distracted as Will set the tray down beside her and took everything that was for her off.

"About what? Sorry that was rude." Will said, covering his mouth. "I'm just use to talking to others."

Jack didn't answer, she watched as he started heading out.

"I was thinking about a girl name Rachel Elizabeth Dare"

The tray clattered out of Will's hands.

"I had a dream. She was at this round table with you and a bunch of other people." Jack stated as she watch him bend down to pick it up.

"This is not good" Will said as he ran a hand through his hair, clearly distraught.

"Why?"

Will turned, his blue eyes filled with worry.

"Because nothing good ever happens when people dream of that place."

With that ominous message, he left in a hurry. He needed to call Chiron.

 **~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~**

Nico hosted the paintball gun up higher as he laid in the underbrush. The deal was that he wasn't to strain his leg that much so here he was lying under some leaves with the scope poking out a hole under a root. His paint was red, like blood. The others were color-coded by whoever grabbed the color first. Nico had made sure to grab red for his unit because pink was not a nice color.

He looked through the scope. No need for killing shots. Those were no fun with paintballs but shots to the tender parts were quite fun. He had shot Bear twice, one in the nuts and another in his hoisting shoulder. It was too easy, lay the bait with dragging shuffling marks in the dirt and bits of paint from a broken shell that must have hit someone from far away.

Way to easy. Soon he had tagged 3 more people, one in the stomach, another in the soft spot on the hip, before the sirens rang to signal the end. He manage to get out from under the leaves without much pain. He brushed off a couple of beetle and limped off to the reverend point. He spied the people who were completely covered in paint and those with a smug grin. Nico was quite proud at all the white splatters on the other units, knowing fully well it was his own team. Pride swelled in his chest as some random soldier was dragged out of the forest by his teammate as he clutched at the bits between his leg. Curiously the area was stained red.

"What got into his tea?" Nico asked to Alex, jerking his head to the person laying on the ground in pain. Alex grinned wickedly.

"I shot him"

"Nice shot" Nico said.

"Thank you, too bad you weren't allowed to play"

Nico gave him a long suffering look. "When have I ever followed the rules?"

Alex looked at him. "You played… with that leg…"

Nico grinned before Alex tackled him and yelled. "SNAKE!"

The grin slid off Nico's face as he started struggling to get out from the older boy's weight. Of course, Alex was sitting on his stomach, minding the wounds on his hip and leg, and pinning his hands above his head in a very compromising way, not that Nico notice. No he was too busy trying to get away before the demon of a medic comes around.

"What do you want Cub?" Snake asked slightly ticked.

"Devil here played paintball with us."

"So?" Glaring at Cub.

"With his leg"

The glare turned to Nico who gulped and fell still. Stupid blonds and their tendency to be protective.

"I got permission." Nico said loudly, trying to explain himself. "I didn't move, I camped out under a bush."

"Umhmm" Snake said before grabbing his medic kit. "Drag him to the bunker, time for the check up that you avoided for so long."

Alex nodded before motioning Fox to grab Nico's feet. Eagle and Wolf looked on in amusement as they dragged the boy boy away. Nico struggled of course, he probably caused more damage to himself then when he was waiting under the bush, but still he couldn't break free. And so, most of the camp watched as he was dragged to the barracks kicking and yelling, the other members of the unit watching from behind, ready to catch him if he broke free.

"Gods" Nico cursed as he was wrestled onto a bed and forcefully pinned down. He was breathing hard when his back touched the bed. He grew limp and started pleading with them.

"You don't need to do this, the infirmary already did!"

"I need a report and they refuse to give me you file." Snake said as he started to lift the hem of the Nico shirt. They got a bit below his belly button when Snake stopped because of a cough. They all turned over to see the sergeant looking at them.

"Soldiers"

"Sir"

"What in the hell are you doing?"

Silence

"He's underage, get off him"

Everyone scrambled off Nico in haste to follow the Sergeant's orders. From the perspective of an outsider it looked like a scene straight out of fifty shades of gray. Except for more boys and a younger bottom.

"I do not want to see this from any of you again. Do you copy?"

"Yessir"

"Now, Devil. My office, you have a letter."

Nico was quite curious now. "From who?"

"From DOA Recording Studios"

Nico paled and swallowed hard. Father.

* * *

Uh so... I'm sorry? Not really. I just got distracted, junior year is coming up and I'm trying to study and stuff. Also this was written when I was still in the mood of writing. Now I feel like it's a chore but you know what? I don't care, and I'm still writing. Slowly though. So off we go!


	10. Epilogue

He quickly followed the Sergeant to his office and closed the door quietly behind him. The crisp white envelope appeared on the desk as the other man walked out to give him some privacy to read the letter.

 _Nico,_

 _I need to cut your vacation short. Hera is playing her games again. You will assist Hazel in her first quest. Make sure she does not come visit me prematurely. There will be more that what the eye can see. Look into the shadows for they carry the secret._

 _Hades/Pluto_

 _Hades Pluto_

Nico crumble the paper and lit it on fire before dropping the curling paper so it floated down gently. The edges browning before crumbling into ashes. As the remains still glowed slightly red, he spun on the spot and disappeared.

In his place was a single gray letter with a simple script scrawled on the front.

K-Unit

 **~Those who step in the shadows leaves behind the light ~ Those who step into the light lets the shadows follow~**

Epilogue

"NICO!" A girl's voice screamed in pain as the world shattered around them. A swarm of darkness swallowed the sun as an evil cackle echoed in their minds. The girl fell into the arms of a pale skinny boy whose skin was covered in flaking blood and a layer of golden dust.

"Just a bit more Hazel. Backup is almost here" The boy said as he clutched the wound in his leg. The edges wrinkled with age but the blood that flowed out was as fresh as the ones from the girl. "It's almost got the sun." He said, staring up at the red rimmed sun with half of the light blocked by something darker than dark.

A piercing note rang in the air and a wave of monsters fell. Arrows sprouted out of arms and maws. A cry rose about the screams of the creatures from nightmares. Nico let the sword drop as he breathed a sigh of relief. The Apollo cabin was here.

"Let me take her." Someone called just behind Nico and he passed off Hazel to a blond haired, blue eyed girl.

"Nico, you need rest too." Another person said as they took their place besides him.

"I can't Will, we don't have time."

Nico struggled to his feet and pulled out a spare clip of specially made bullets and picked back up the sword. "A bit more and your father is lost forever. He is only mortal now."

Will gave a once over before nodding curtly. He looked over at the mass of swarming bodies before looking Nico back in the eye.

"Together?"

"Okay"

They both jumped into the battle, a dark blade flickering in and out of bodies as a similar golden blade rang with power. Dark and light.

Light

Light…

Fading

Too late?

Too late

Help me

It's too late

 _Wait for me Devil, I'm coming_

 _Cub?_

 _I'm coming_

 **There ends the story, I know I know, short and I cut off all of k unit but that's because there is a good reason. Anyways, that's it! Thank you for reading and I know, I pulled a Rick Riordan with this. Not my best work but I'm trying to complete everything and bring it all to a close. Also, anyone up for writing the sequel? Message me**


	11. Sequel

Sequel to Nico in Hell is out. It's a Kuroko no Basuke and Percy Jackson crossover. It's part of a trilogy so don't worry about the poll results. Can be read stand alone but I'm going to wait to finish this one before the third book which will most likely return to AR/PJ xover.


End file.
